Thursday, July 23, 2009

Guest in Progress: Kim Roberts

Poet and editor Kim Roberts is always up to something fun, like trying to get her work published in a literary journal located in every state in the U.S. She’s also also a wonderful editor (of the online journal Beltway), a promoter of the arts in DC with her literary-themed walks, and a font of useful information (her list of writers’ colonies is incredibly comprehensive and can be found here: http://washingtonart.com/beltway/resid1.html).

Most importantly, of course, Kim is a serious poet. As such, she’s headed off to a colony to get in some writing. Here’s your chance to be a literary muse and have some fun through Kim’s “snail mail challenge,” which I received, yes, through snail mail and had to share with the world:


ENTER THE KIM ROBERTS SUMMER 2009 SNAIL MAIL CHALLENGE

Win Fabulous Prizes!
Get Actual Letters in Return!

I am off to the southern tip of the Appalachian Mountain chain, to the tiny town of Rabun Gap, Georgia, near where the three states of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina meet.

I am hoping you will do the OLD FASHIONED THING and send me mail through the US Postal Service. There’s no substitute for a real letter! And mail at artist colonies takes on an ALMOST MYTHICAL SIGNIFICANCE. It doesn’t really matter what you send—you could mail me the little piece of plastic holding your bread bag together, and if it came to me at an art colony, I would consider it my new prize possession. I might make a shrine to it in my studio. I would probably write a poem about it.

Please send letters, postcards, and miscellania between the dates of JULY 28 and AUGUST 23 to:

Kim Roberts
c/o Hambidge Center
105 Hambidge Court
Rabun Gap, GA 30568

Any mail, no matter how bizarre, or how minimalist, will get a letter in return from me. That is my promise. I also offer, as an added incentive, FABULOUS PRIZES of an Unspecified Nature, Reflecting my Sojourn in the Deep South. Awards will be given in the following categories:

--Most Mail Sent
--Oddest Mail Sent (the Barbara DeCesare Memorial Cherry Pie Pastry in an Unpadded Envelope Award)

Previous Award Winners, from other art colony trips, have included Susan Boscarino (for the Soft Sculpture in an Envelope That Took an Entire Afternoon to Assemble), Dan Vera (for the infamous Photo Rebus of DC Street Signs Letter), and Michael Gushue (for his inspiring Field Guide to Famous Nebraskans).

I will be driving down to Hambidge, leaving DC on July 24. I will return in the last week of August.

Send me something! Send me anything! I am counting on YOU.

About: Kim Roberts is the author of two books of poems, The Kimnama (Vrzhu Press, 2007) and The Wishbone Galaxy (WWPH, 1994). She edits the online journal Beltway Poetry Quarterly. Roberts has published in journals beginning with every letter of the alphabet, and her poems have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Mandarin. This August, she is a writer-in-residence at her twelfth artist colony. Her website: www.kimroberts.org.

Work-in-Progress

DC-area author Leslie Pietrzyk explores the creative process and all things literary.