Kim O'Connell
  • Home
  • About
  • News & Events
  • Selected Writing
  • Vietnamese Heritage
  • The Arlington Table
  • Contact

Recent Publications

Kim's essay on the importance of a weekly pub trivia tradition appears in AARP's online publication, reaching the organization's 38 million members (PDF version).

Kim's piece on the memorialization of Richmond's forgotten places of enslavement appears in Landscape Architecture magazine. In addition, Kim's profile of 
science-based landscape architect Mikyoung Kim, which also appeared in Landscape Architecture, was recently a finalist for a 2025 Neal Award for Business Journalism in the "Best Profile" category. ​

"Minding the Matrix in Shenandoah National Park" is Kim's latest science feature for National Parks Traveler.

​Kim is a featured storyteller in the current exhibit "Virginia & The Vietnam War" at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond. She appears in three oral history compilation videos talking about the Vietnamese experience in America after the war ended. 

​Kim's recent feature in Preservation magazine, about how archaeology is informing new ways of thinking about Drayton Hall in Charleston, begins like this: "In a wooden drying tray...sits a jumble of cleaned, fragmented objects. At first, it’s difficult to determine what they even are...But just like when we stare at art, or the night sky, patience is rewarded."

Picture

A story two years in the making: Kim's feature on the groundbreaking and long forgotten Howard University crew team has just been published in The Washington Post's Metro section, following a previous story that appeared in Smithsonian magazine in 2022. Kim spent a year building up a database of former rowers and searching far and wide for living members to talk to. Kim's work was also mentioned in a recent article in Row2K.com. 

Kim's essay about the Appalachian Trail, called "Connective Tissue," appears in the second edition of Campfire Stories: Tales from America's National Parks (Mountaineers Books). Kim also published a feature story about spruce restoration along the Trail for A.T. Journeys, the magazine of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. ​

​Al Jazeera English published Kim's profile of anti-hunger advocate Rebecca Middleton. ​

Speaking Engagements 

Little Saigon Walking Tour
Sponsored by the Arlington County Library
May 3, 2025

Conflict Cuisine: Diaspora, Identity, and the Power of Food in DC
American University
March 5, 2025


Widening the Lens: Diversifying Nature Writing
AWP Conference (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), Philadelphia, PA

March 2022

The Storytellers: Giving Agency to Your Ancestors
The Library of Virginia
May 6, 2021

Moderator, A Q&A With Novelist Marita Golden

Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University's Master's in Science Writing Program
April 2020
Picture
The Saving Grace of Spring Rolls
The Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA
​May 2019


​Acadia National Park 
Writing Workshop

October 2018

National Parks Artist-in-Residence Panel 
AWP Conference, Washington, D.C.
February 2017
  • Home
  • About
  • News & Events
  • Selected Writing
  • Vietnamese Heritage
  • The Arlington Table
  • Contact