Kim Adrian is the author of two books of lyric criticism:
Dear Knausgaard (described by James Wood, literary critic for
The New Yorker, as “a delight from start to finish”); and
Sock (part of Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons Series). She wrote the critically acclaimed memoir
The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet, a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist. Other work includes the libretto for the opera
The Strange Child (music by Julia Werntz), and
The Shell Game: Writers Play with Borrowed Forms, an anthology of lyric essays praised by a review in
The Millions as providing “a sense of hope about literature and its capacity for evolution and change." Three of Kim's works, including her book
Sock, have been translated into Mandarin for publication in China. Several of her shorter works have been listed as Notable or Distinguished in the
Best American Essays,
Best American Short Stories, and
Pushcart Prize anthologies. A graduate of Barnard College with a major in Cultural Anthropology, Kim received her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She has taught creative writing at Brown University, Grub Street, and the Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop. She lives in Boston and is currently working on a novel about the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann. Excerpts from this novel have won the support of a fellowship at the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Schwandorf (Germany), a residency at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg (Germany; upcoming), and a 2025 Individual Artist Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
