Kim Roberts
NEW COLLABORATIVE BOOK OF POEMS
Q&A for the End of the World is a new series of poems about science fiction movies from the 1950’s and 1960’s, including such classics as “Godzilla” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Written alternately by the two authors, the book’s twenty poems act as a call-and-response for each movie. The poems address facets of film technique, pop culture, race, gender—as well as fears of nuclear war, dehumanization, and the “other”—with curiosity, skepticism, and affection. Film producer Jon Gann praises the book: “This exploration of classic sci-fi films through poetry is as unique as each of the authors—one deeply committed to genre, and one to trying to understand the logic and appeal. The humorous and insightful back-and-forth is fun to digest, and begs the reader to re-watch these films with a new acumen.” Michael O’Sullivan, film critic for the Washington Post, writes: “Two poets, one a lifelong sci-fi movie fan, the other new to the genre, engage in a literary conversation — a he-said-she-said about aliens and the apocalypse, teratology and time travel. The results are funny and fabulous, by turns startling and profound. In Q&A for the End of the World, Roberts and Gushue take a tag-team approach to the mysteries and delights of bygone B-movies and creature features (and one 28-minute French arthouse thriller). In the process, they harness the warped dream-logic of poetry to discover, in monster movies, some hidden yet familiar truths.” The collaborating authors will celebrate the release of the book with a reading at Politics & Prose Books on Wednesday, April 9, 2025 at 7:00 pm (5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC; admission free). Other readings will follow, including the Kensington Day of the Book on April 27, a reading at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda on June 21, and a featured reading in the Cafe Muse Series on October 6.
Kim Roberts is the author of two guidebooks, A Literary Guide to Washington, DC: Walking in the Footsteps of American Writers from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston (University of Virginia Press, 2018), and Buried Stories: Walking Tours of Washington, DC Cemeteries (Rivanna Books, 2025), and she edited the anthology, By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of our Nation’s Capital (University of Virginia Press, 2020, selected by the DC Public Library and East Coast Centers for the Book for the 2021 Route 1 Reads program). She is the author of seven books of poems, including, most recently, another collaboration: Corona/Crown, a cross-disciplinary chapbook created with photographer Robert Revere (WordTech Editions, 2023). Kim co-curates DC Pride Poem-a- Day, and coordinates the annual Pride Poets-in-Residence program at the Arts Club of Washington.
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