2016 Carl Sandburg Writer-In-Residence from Greenville
March 30, 2016
Hendersonville, NC | Greenville, SC:
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site and the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara are pleased to announce the 2016 Carl Sandburg Writer-in-Residence, Kimberly Simms. Kimberly Simms currently lives in Travelers Rest, SC and is a former Greenville County Schools middle grades teacher turned full time poet and writer.
A welcoming reception for Ms. Simms will be held on Monday, April 18 at the Henderson County Public Library Downtown in Hendersonville, NC from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. This reception is part of the North Carolina Writer’s Network Open Mic Night. Kimberly will share a selection of her poetry along with other writers in the community. The public is welcome.
The residency will last from April 6th to April 26th to coincide with National Poetry Month. As part of the program, Ms. Simms will work with fieldtrip groups, local schools and colleges, as well as make a number of public appearances. On April 7th, she will meet with local Greenville county students from Northwest Middle School as part of their fieldtrip to The Carl Sandburg House.
Most recently, Kimberly has been sharing her love of poetry in local Greenville schools as a teaching artist through the Metropolitan Arts Council’s SMART Arts program. In 2016, she was also added to the Humanities Council of South Carolina’s Literary Speaker’s Bureau.
Kimberly Jane Simms has been sharing her poems with a variety of audiences since she started running poetry slams in her twenties. She was a member of the Greenville Slam Team that won the South East Regional Poetry Slam in 1998. Since then she has gone on to gain recognition from both esteemed literary editors, as well as live audiences. She is a graduate of Furman University and holds a masters from Clemson University.
Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals such as Poem, The South Carolina Review, The Asheville Poetry Review, Kakalak, and Eclipse. She has been a featured performer and reader internationally at festivals and venues including the Battersea Arts Center London, The Institute of Contemporary Arts London, The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, The Peace Center, and Artisphere, as well as numerous other arts establishments and universities. She is currently finishing
her first young adult novel. You can learn more about her at her website www.kimberlysimms.com or follow her on twitter @witsendpoetry.
