Kim Ports Parsons is the author of

The Mayapple Forest, Terrapin Books, 2022, selected as 2nd Finalist for the North American Book Award by the Poetry Society of Virginia, Judge Bill Glose.

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After working in education for thirty years as a professor, mentor, public-school teacher, and librarian, Kim now spends as much time as possible on the reading, writing, and sharing of poetry. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her poems have been published widely, in print and online, in Vox Populi, Poetry Ireland Review, SWIMM Every Day, Skylight 47, and Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, and more.

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She volunteers weekly for the international, intergenerational, intersectional poetry organization, Cultivating Voices LIVE Poetry, because she believes in poetic community. She creates the graphic designs for the group's events, and collaborates with founder Sandra Yannone and fellow poet Don Krieger on program ideas and management.

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Kim earned her BA in English from Goucher College, her MA with Creative Writing Emphasis from the University of Maryland-College Park, and her PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her gratitude overflows for her teachers and mentors -- Elizabeth Spires, Stanley Plumly, Michael Collier, Marcia Southwick, Greg Kuzma, Stephen Behrendt, and Hilda Raz.

 

An avid reader, gardener, and birdwatcher, she often hikes with her husband Doug and hound dog Sadie in nearby Shenandoah National Park. At this very moment, she might be stirring a pot of jam, or pausing in her writing to give one of the cats a little scratch behind the ears.