Kim Adrian is the author of three books of creative nonfiction.
Dear Knausgaard—described by James Wood, book critic for
The New Yorker, as "personal, wonderfully engaged...and extremely intelligent"—and
Sock (part of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series) are both works of lyric criticism. Her memoir,
The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet, was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist.
Several of her essays and stories have been listed as Notable or Distinguished in
Best American Essays,
Best American Short Stories, and
Pushcart Prize. Her essay "Questionnaire for My Grandfather" has been anthologized twice, translated into Mandarin, and is forthcoming in chapbook form by IKE: a Publishing Project. Kim wrote the introduction to Gertrude Trevelyan's
As It Was in the Beginning and edited
The Shell Game: Writers Play with Borrowed Forms, an anthology of lyric essays described in
The Millions as providing “a sense of hope about literature and its capacity for evolution and change." She has taught creative writing at Brown University and Grub Street.
The Strange Child is a chamber opera for which Kim wrote the libretto. It is based on a fairy tale by the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann. Hoffmann is also a central character in the novel she is currently writing. Set in Berlin, 1822, this work-in-progress has received support from a fellowship at the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Schwandorf (Germany), a special residency at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg (Germany), and a 2025 Individual Artist Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
SELECTED TALKS & APPEARANCES: Guest Speaker, Self and Sequence Conference, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2025
★ Guest Speaker, Auto/Bio/Fiction Series, Goldsmiths University of London, 2025
★ Guest Lecturer, Wheaton College, 2022
★ Guest Reader, Cardin Reading Series, University of Hartford, 2022
SELECTED HONORS:
Artist Grant, Massachusetts Cultural Council (2008, 2025) ★
Writing Fellow, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Schwandorf, Germany ★
Evelyn Danzig Haas Visiting Artist, Wheaton College ★
Marianne Russo Award, Key West Literary Seminars ★
William Raney Scholar in Nonfiction, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference ★
Edward Albee Barn Fellowship ★
Editors’ Prize in Nonfiction, New Ohio Review ★
P.E.N. New England Discovery Award
