Kimberly and Bonnie, co-curators of The Boom Project book, met mid-life at Spalding University's Master of Fine Arts program and are active in the literary arts community of Louisville, KY.
Kimberly is the former chairperson of Louisville Literary Arts and teaches memoir and essay at Shape & Flow Writing Studio in a repurposed slaughterhouse—the Mellwood Arts Center. Bonnie spent child-rearing years moving from city to city volunteering and working at various satisfying jobs until moving to Louisville and earning an advanced degree.
The BOOM Project: Voices of a Generation is the product of Kimberly's and Bonnie's desire to honor the past, celebrate the present, and inspire the future.
Kimberly Garts Crum
Q: What surprises you about getting older?
The mirror. I am old on the outside; same on the inside.
Q: What is your next writing project?
Revising a collection of memoir and essays titled, Slouching Toward Self-Actualization. The audience: spiritually-inclined baby boomer feminists. Literary agents are lining up!
Q: Do you have a bucket list?
Avoid riding in a hot air balloon. Make a pie crust from scratch. Write in a Welsh village.
Q: What are your pet peeves?
When strangers tuck in my shirt tag. Also, the expressions, “It is what it is," or “Been there, done that.”
Q: What books have had the greatest impact?
Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss
Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Bonnie Omer Johnson
Q. What surprises you about getting older?
Aside from unexpected male pattern baldness, I find fewer absolutes.
Q. What is your next writing project?
I hope to polish the umpteenth final revision of two novels, a book for very young children, and two non-fiction books - all finished, but marinating. #notdeadyet #need tokeepgoing.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote?
So many. Since I continue to mourn the loss of Mary Oliver earlier this year, I offer a few of her words:
"Someone I once loved gave me a box of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift."
Q. What is on your bucket list?
More travel: I've not been to New Orleans and I want to experience the food and the architecture
More reading: I want to read all the unread books on my shelves, which I never will, because I keep buying books.
