The Courtship of Reason

Published in 2010 by Finishing Line Press
An exploration of characters, frailties and strengths. Often quirky and suprising, thought-provoking.

"Her navigator guides drink after drink
in for a perfect landing
on emptiness, unchartable
where no rescuer can find
even a scrap of debris floating,
only wave after wave -
the sea licking its lips".

From "She Rides The Clouds Bareback"

Contains Scenes of Indigenous Nudity

A look at what lies under our masks, who we are beneath our skins, warts and all.

"As we wait in the sheerness of
ourselves,
is there ever hesitation
to wrap the heaviness of skin
around us again,
lay our rhthyms into a frame of bones
and walk a day without sun
so we may understand darkness,
or pull the sun close and let it burn
into the hard coverings we hide in
as if seeds sleeping under snow".

From " When Deciding Our Next Lives"

Nuns Shooting Guns

Inspired by a promotional photograph for a new rifle modeled by nuns, this collection spoofs everyone including the author.

"Nothing- what you get from these men
'round here, not like the movies
where honey boys coo like doves.
Here, their talk is full of splinters and grit
like their hands,
don't know how to hold anything soft
without bruisin'it.
They just grab on
like I was an old stump
needin' yankin' up
and haulin' off somewheres."


From "Courtin' Lumberjacks"

The Slow Talk Of Stones

This collection is set in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and places an emphasis on the issue of Mountain Top Removal.

"We have lost the mountains
and the creeks rise black
with something
that ripples below the surface,
as if giant Hellbenders wait
with their monstrous mouths."

The Unbreakable Child

Hardcover 1st Edition
2009

PROCEEDS FROM SALES WILL GO TOWARDS AUTHOR SUPPORTED CAUSES

The Unbreakable Child; A memoir about forgiving the unforgivable is a riveting journey inside the secretive underbelly of the St. Thomas Saint Vincent Orphan Asylum in rural Kentucky. It is the first book in the US to confront the institutionalized abuse suffered by thousands of orphans at the hands of Catholic nuns and a priest over these last decades. It also documents the first court-awarded justice from an order of nuns for the author, her sisters and forty-two other former children from that orphanage. The Unbreakable Child offers hope, justice and forgiveness to readers.
Kim Michele Richardson spent over nine years in the care of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in her native Kentucky in the 1960s. That grim experience and her subsequent legal action against the nuns are the subjects of her book, The Unbreakable Child.

As the KY spokesperson for SNAP, The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, Kim is a go-to contact for news media for the endemic clergy abuse crisis and has appeared on national radio, news print, TV news channels, and on PBS stations.
Kim mentors teen and adult writing workshops and has initiated student reading groups and has also implemented and designed successful programs to help homeless shelters - programs that taught students about giving back to their communities.

Kim has been an active community worker doing volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity and a local shelter for the homeless, as well as helping younger students with reading and writing. She works closely with abuse victims and survivors of all types of abuse. Kim is also a contributor to The Huffington Post, writing about societal issues.

Makes a great gift book for anyone

Causes this author supports:
Habitat For Humanity
Humane Society
Family and Children's Place
Maryhurst
SNAP
RAINN

50 books donated and available

Kim's advocate groups: Family and Children First & MaryHurst