Kim Peek
Nonfiction
Chicago, IL
Kim Peek started her career as a university composition instructor before serving two years with the Peace Corps in Ecuador. During her time in Ecuador, she taught English as a Second Language at a high school in the southernmost province of Ecuador, traveled to some of Ecuador’s most beautiful mountains and beaches, and worked on improving her Spanish. After returning to the United States, she transitioned to corporate training and currently works as a manager and instructional designer at a tech company in Chicago.
Kim is a nonfiction writer and holds an M.A. in English from Kansas State University. At Ragdale, she plans to work on a second draft of her memoir, which explores how Peace Corps fails to support its volunteers, how its white saviorism manifests in volunteers’ work, and how volunteers work selflessly within an imperfect and sometimes traumatic atmosphere.
@kimpeekwrites
excerpt
The pain is like an ink blot in water, gathering at your temples, then stretching out across your
brain in murky tendrils. You cancel your classes at the public university and slide into bed.
When you wake again, it’s dark and your fingers are icicles. Not even the llama hair blankets can
vanquish the cold in your bones. You locate your Peace Corps-issued medical kit underneath
your bed. The kit looks like an 80s lunch box, but its contents are a weird array of medical
supplies: oral rehydration salts, individually packaged pain killers, condoms, gauze, iodine
tablets, gloves.