​​Hello! Welcome, Welcome. My name is Kim Zanti. Come on in. Have a look around, and I'll tell you a story.  

 

Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, I wrote on looseleaf notebook paper that I kept in a cigar box. I wrote the sixth grade play this way. In the summer, I'd sit with my friends on the curb, making up stories that we'd perform in the street to entertain fireflies and ourselves.

 

In college, I wrote on a computer keyboard and published stories in the student newspaper. After moving 'out West,' I wrote, directed and performed in dance theatre pieces at the Coconino Center for the Arts and Metropophobobia in Flagstaff and Phoenix, Arizona, respectively. I studied playwriting with Toby Armour and fiction with Al Martinez and Lou Mathews, non-fiction with Kenneth Miller and Ron Russell. I published in local and regional newspapers, such as Arizona Daily Sun, The Malibu Times, and Topanga Messenger.

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I honed my craft and made a living in the literary and performing arts, wearing many hats that allowed me to write about what I loved. 

Developing a speciality in grant writing, I raised millions of dollars in support of vital arts, culture, and education programs for organizations such as Get Lit-Words Ignite, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and the LA Department of Arts and Culture, to name a few.

 

I then joined the Centers for Research on Creativity in Los Angeles, inspired by the mission to better understand conditions that can promote imaginative approaches to learning, design, and problem solving.
 

For the better part of a decade, I had the privilege of witnessing teachers and students as they learned from one another in classrooms, makers clubs, playgrounds, and Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the US and abroad. 

These investigations led me to co-author a chapter on dance and creativity and to earn my Masters in Creative Studies, where I finished the first draft of my novel, Seaglass. Then, opportunity knocked.

My novel simmered on the back burner while I produced, directed and wrote a short documentary on the impacts of public murals on a small town on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. I wrote and received a $10,000 artist grant from Community Engagement and matched it through an individual donor campaign. 

Despite COVID-19 sweeping the Yucatan Peninsula, our guerrilla team of filmmakers forged ahead. I enjoyed the most collaborative, creative experience of my life. We returned home healthy, and we had a story. Beyond the Bridge screened on PBS, in film festivals, classrooms, and at creativity conferences. 

Turning back to Seaglass, I joined Julia Fierro's fiction workshop at Sackett Street Writers, then rewrote the manuscript. Currently, I am seeking an agent for upmarket fiction.

After 36 years living west of the 98th Meridian, I returned to Baltimore and live in Hampden, where my creative journey continues.​ 

For my professional bona fides, please click on the LinkedIn icon below.

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