A Cave Canem, Callaloo and Ragdale fellow, Kimberly Dixon-Mays’ poetry has been published in journals including Reverie, Anthology of Chicago, the anthology Trigger Warning, Uproot magazine, RHINO magazine (finalist, Founder’s Prize, 2018; Illinois Arts Council Agency Literary Award, 2020) and Consequence magazine (finalist, Prize in Poetry, ‘14). She is an Associate Editor for RHINO poetry magazine.

As a playwright, Kimberly has received readings and staged productions at theaters including Mad Cow Theater, Rivendell Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Crossroads Theatre Company, Plowshares Theatre Company, Emotive Fruition, Windy City Playhouse, and Strawdog Theatre Company. In addition, from 2005-2013 she was a recurring member of the Guild Literary Complex’s devised theater project the Poetry Performance Incubator (Artistic Director Coya Paz), co-creating and performing in its original works Tour Guides and Like Bread.

Among other theater honors, Kimberly’s play The Gizzard of Brownsville was a 2002 finalist for the Theodore Ward Prize for African-American Playwrights; and her play (Nine) was a featured reading for Congo Square Theatre Company’s 2019 August Wilson New Play Initiative, and a semi-finalist for the 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. She was also a semi-finalist for the 2020 National Black Theatre I Am Soul Playwright Residency and recipient of NBT's Soul Series Lab Playwriting Micro-Development Session, nominated for a 2021 3Arts Award, selected for Goodman Theatre's 2022 Future Lab series, and a 2023 finalist for American Blues Theater’s Blue Ink Award. In 2023 she also developed work with Shattered Globe Theater’s Global Playwright Series and Stage Left’s Playwright Residency Program and received an Illinois Arts Council fellowship. Kimberly was a 2018-20 Russ Tutterow Fellow with Chicago Dramatists, and is currently a Resident Playwright with CD.

Kimberly holds a B.A. in Psychology/Theater Studies from Yale, an M.A. in Afro-American Studies (playwriting concentration) from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Theatre/Drama from Northwestern.

Kimberly talks with Ean Miles Kessler about process, inspiration, and the writer’s responsibility on Chicago Dramatists’ “The Sound and the Journey” podcast

Kimberly reflects on her adopted city’s role in her evolution as a writer with Chicago’s NPR Music station Vocalo in their “Chi Sounds Like” series