Monday, August 25, 2008

#60 The Fully Formed Kim Chinquee

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Kim Chinquee was three weeks late being born and she was a big baby when she finally arrived. She started reading before anybody else in her class and was the salutatorian of her middle school, but her parents divorced when she was 14 and Kim stopped studying in high school. She preferred sports, boys, and parties. When she graduated, she didn’t go to college. She couldn’t afford it and nobody had told her about financial aid. She was going to join the Navy, but the recruiter wasn’t there, so she joined the Air Force instead. She didn’t want to fly planes, but she didn’t really want to be a medical lab technician either—it was her 10th choice. She married another lab tech and they had a son a little over one year later. Technically, they were married for 7 years, but they were separated for the last 4 years of their marriage because her husband wouldn’t sign the divorce papers. He couldn’t believe that she actually wanted to leave him. The divorce finally became official and Kim left the Air Force too. She joined the Reserves, but the next few years were a difficult time. She was a single mother working multiple jobs, taking classes toward her college degree, and paying for food with food stamps. She took her first creative writing class because it filled a general education requirement and has been a writer ever since--though she never admitted that fact until she won the Henfield Prize and the 5K dollar award that goes with it. Now she is a creative writing professor at Buffalo State College and has published a great book of tiny stories called OH BABY. She may have started her writing life a little late, but she has arrived fully formed.

Chinquee+PC



More Kim Chinquee

Kim Chinquee’s OH BABY

6 comments:

Kim Chinquee said...

Thanks, Michael.

Did I tell you how awesome it was to find this postcard waiting for me when I arrived to my new home in Buffalo? I have to mention it again. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I love Kim Chinquee more now than I ever thought possible. I'm not even kidding.

BlogSloth said...

Fucking A

Michael Kimball said...

Yes, you did, Kim, but I'm glad you said it again. It makes me smile to think about it. And Mary, I had the same thing happen to me. And Sean, I know.

gustavo.rivera said...

kim is fucking awesome. i have loved everything i've read by her.

i see a theme about late or early births.

why is that?

i don't expect an answer. just throwing that out there.

Cynthia Reeser said...

I love this. I really do.