Kim Green is a freelance writer and public radio producer. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, CrimeReads, Roads & Kingdoms, the New York Times, Hemispheres, and the Nashville Scene, and on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Nashville Public Radio, Marketplace, the New Yorker Radio Hour, and NPR’s Here and Now. She’s managing editor of Pursuit Magazine, an online publication for professional investigators.

Before writing, Green was a flight instructor in Nashville. She’s the co-writer of Chantha Nguon’s memoir, Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes, published in 2024 by Algonquin. She also co-translated and edited a memoir by a Soviet combat airwoman from WWII; Red Sky, Black Death was published in 2009. 

Contact info: kim [at] storyboardemp [dot] com

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Latest Project:

Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes, by Chantha Nguon (with Kim Green)

Published on February 20, 2024, with Algonquin Books.

Take a well-fed nine-year-old with a big family and a fancy education. Fold in 2 revolutions, 2 civil wars, and one wholesale extermination. Subtract a reliable source of food, life savings, and family members, until all are gone. Shave down childhood dreams for approximately two decades, until only subsistence remains.

In Slow Noodles, Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodian refugee who lost everything and everyone—her house, her country, her parents, her siblings, her friends—everything but the memories of her mother’s kitchen, the tastes and aromas of the foods her mother made before the dictator Pol Pot tore her country apart. Nguon’s irrepressible spirit and determination come through in this emotional and poignant but also lyrical and magical memoir that includes over 20 recipes for Khmer dishes like chicken lime soup, banh sung noodles, curries, spring rolls, and stir-fries.

Slow Noodles is a testament to the power of culinary heritage to spark the rebirth of a young woman’s hopes for a beautiful life.

“I’ve never read a book that made me weep, wince, laugh out loud, and rejoice like Slow Noodles. In Chantha Nguon’s harrowing, wise, and fiercely feminist memoir, cooking is a language—of love, remembrance, and rebellion—and stories are nourishment.”

—Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of “You Could Make This Place Beautiful”

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Radio

Rachel Held Evans and Her Legacy – Produced a 30-minute podcast in collaboration with reporter Eliza Griswold and editor David Krasnow (WNYC & the New Yorker Radio Hour)

The Last Abortion Clinic in Mississippi – Produced an audio segment from Rachel Monroe’s reporting tape as part of a longer podcast package: If Roe v. Wade Goes, What Next? (WNYC & the New Yorker Radio Hour)

Transitioned (2017) – A series (WPLN)

Working It: Living Between Hope and Hardship – A series (NPR)

Transitioned (2011) – A series (WPLN)

A Lesson in Sprockets Takes Students on a Trip (NPR’s Weekend Edition)

Siblings of Sick Kids Learn a Life Lesson Early (NPR’s Weekend Edition )

From Foodie Desert to Foodie Destination (WPLN)

Paying for Better Eyes in the Skies (Marketplace)

Print features

‘Replanted in a New Land’: Nashville’s Cambodian Immigrant Community – Stories of who these Nashvillians were, who they are now, and who they’re still becoming (Nashville Scene)

Grace Under Fire – Embracing LGBT members may have saved Franklin’s GracePointe Church — or destroyed it. (Nashville Scene)

Micro-Houses of the Holy – Can a tiny portable home fight homelessness and the affordable-housing crunch? The Rev. jeff obafemi carr is living in one to see. (Nashville Scene)

American Dreamers – Four stories of immigrant mothers who braved hard work, perilous journeys, even separation to raise their children as U.S. citizens (Nashville Scene)

Profiles

How to Produce an Investigative Podcast – Interview with Chip Brantley, co-producer of NPR’s “White Lies” (Vanderbilt Magazine)

“The Confession Tapes”—Q&A with Filmmaker Kelly Loudenberg – The creator of a true-crime Netflix series talks about her two-year investigation of false confessions. (PursuitMag)

Sherrick + Paul: New Gallery, New Art – A curator and gallery entrepreneur infuses big-world art into a small-city arts scene. (Nashville Arts)

2015 Nashvillians of the Year: The Diplomat and the Warrior – How attorneys Abby Rubenfeld and Bill Harbison helped to change history (Nashville Scene)

Ruta Sepetys’s Long Journey Home – How a Nashville author’s quest to discover her family history resulted in a bestselling debut novel (Nashville City Paper)

Dan Hampton, Veteran of the Month – A retired F-16 pilot has put aside the sword and taken up the pen to tell the stories of people who love flying. (Parade)

Travel & Food

Much-Needed Reckonings – An accidental food writer looks for lessons from the canon. (Chapter 16)

She Despised the Flavor of Short Cuts (Roads & Kingdoms)

Can We Also Get Drunk With This Badass Centenarian Female USSR Combat Aviator Pls? (Roads & Kingdoms)

Hotel Review: The Dream Nashville, Printers Alley (NYTimes)

Bota Wine-Drinking Lessons with a Spanish Mule-Driver (Roads & Kingdoms)

Cedar Key, FL—Lovely & Untamed (originally in AOPA Pilot Magazine)

On Being a Regular (originally in Hemispheres Magazine)

The Warrior Dash (NPR’s Only a Game—a delightful slide show of mud & flames)

Business & How-To

3 Investigative Skills That Might Make You a Better Human (Pursuit Magazine)

3 Things Pilots Know About Crisis Management (Fast Company)

Cultivating a Gardener in 6 Easy Steps (Nashville City Paper)

Attempts at Humor

Merry Christmas! You’ve got Cactus Man – Sometimes a community needs a Christmas tradition all its own (Chapter 16)

Oh, the Places You’ll Pee! – A scatological message to graduates (Nashville Scene)

Halcyon Days – Adventures in home renovation: Shovel fights! Exploding cars! (From HER Nashville)

Personal essays 

Love for Life – My grateful tribute to iconic Hume-Fogg writing teacher Bill Brown (Chapter 16)

Much-Needed Reckonings – An accidental food writer looks for lessons from the canon. (Chapter 16) Chosen as a top food story of the week by Longreads.

The Gradual Extinction of Softness – Essay/memoir excerpt co-written with Chantha Nguon. (Hippocampus Magazine) Chosen as a top story of the week by Longreads, The Browser, FERN, HackerNews, and BMoreArt and as a Best Personal Essay of 2021 by Longreads. Pushcart nominee.

Doors Open, the World Enters In – On home, hosting, and the Slow Noodles tour. (Nashville Lifestyles: At Home)

A Pilgrim’s Progress – A 5-foot-3 woman’s got to learn to be big sometimes, especially when her 6-foot-tall guy feels small. (Nashville Scene) 

Unnatural Selection – Excused from the Jury for Cause (Nashville Scene)

Planting Trees Whose Shade We May Never Enjoy – A writer gardens through an existential crisis (Chapter 16)

Investigator’s Notebook: Super Sad True Surveillance Job – On a domestic surveillance job, a PI discovers a web of connection, delusion, and distraction. (PursuitMag & Nashville Scene)

What We Talk About When We Talk About “Rape Culture” – An open letter to good men (Nashville Scene)

Teachable Moments in Aircraft Emergencies – Flying Lessons: How to Appear Calm While Crashing a Small Plane (Nashville Scene)

Book Reviews & Roundups:

Review of The AGI Chronicles, by Kevin Roose – A riveting account of staggering advances in artificial intelligence models—and a very human tale of their creators’ bitter rivalries and grandiose ambitions. (BookPage)

Is it ever OK to quit? In her thought-provoking self-help book, Lindsay Crouse says yes (Q&A with author Lindsay Crouse) –In The Case for Quitting, Crouse argues that sometimes, giving up on a path that’s going nowhere isn’t just the most sensible choice. It’s the courageous one. (BookPage)

Color Lines (Review of Black in Blues, by Imani Perry) – Imani Perry follows a thread of blue through Black history and culture (Chapter 16)

Southbound (Review of South to America, by Imani Perry) – Imani Perry explores the South’s centrality to the American story. (Chapter 16, Nashville Scene)

A Long, Strange Trip (Review of My Trip Abroad, by Chang-Rae Lee) – My Year Abroad traces an ordinary young man’s journey to a weird hell and back. (Chapter 16, Nashville Scene)

Live and Let Spy (Review of Sometimes You Have to Lie, by Leslie Brody) – In Sometimes You Have to Lie, Leslie Brody traces the origin story of an author and her fictional heroine (Chapter 16, Memphis Commercial Appeal)

PI Storytelling Through the Ages: Books, Blogs, and Podcasts by Real Private Eyes – If you want to stalk real private investigators and learn their secrets, all you have to do is read, listen, and subscribe. (Lit Hub/CrimeReads)

Radical Joy (Review of Black Bottom Saints, by Alice Randall) – In Alice Randall’s Black Bottom Saints, a dying man eulogizes the “Black Camelot” of mid-20th-century Detroit. (Chapter 16, Nashville Scene)

Conspiracies of Silence (Review of Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe) – Say Nothing weaves the unsolved case of a disappeared Belfast mother into a history of the Troubles. (Chapter 16)

Here Be Dragons (Review of The Dragons, the Giant, the Women, by Wayétu Moore) – Wayétu Moore flees from Liberia’s civil war and fights to be seen in race-obsessed America (Chapter 16, Nashville Scene)

The Not-So Open Road (Review of Overground Railroad, by Candacy Taylor) – Overground Railroad, Candacy Taylor’s history of the Green Book, is a blunt-force reality check. (Nashville Scene, Chapter 16, Memphis Commercial Appeal)

Road Through Midnight – Multimedia artist Jessica Ingram’s haunting monograph explores the South’s racist history. (Nashville Scene)

The Year in Mysteries: What I Read in 2019 – A roundup of crime novels and true crime nonfiction I read, loved, and did not love last year (Pursuit Magazine)

Full of Grace (Review of The Virgin of Prince Street, by Sonja Livingston) – Sonja Livingston recounts her search for a missing Virgin Mary statue and her own mislaid faith. (Chapter 16 & The Commercial Appeal)

Fields of Dreams (Review of Three Flames, by Alan Lightman) – Patriarchal mores and the ghosts of genocide haunt a Cambodian farming family. (Chapter 16)

Podcasts

The Sound of Pursuit Podcast – A private investigator-themed podcast co-produced with Hal Humphreys.

Video Shortdocs

Origin Stories: Becoming a PI

Old School: The Making of Nashville’s First Academic Magnet School

Banh Xeo – Vietnamese Crepes: How and WHY to make them

Chantha Nguon’s Long Journey Home

Books & Collections

Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes, by Chantha Nguon (with Kim Green)

Red Sky, Black Death: A Soviet Woman Pilot’s Memoir of the Eastern Front  (as editor and co-translator)

“Mother, but Not Mom” (essay included in That Time of the Month: Funny Female Storytelling)

Awards

2016 Association of Alternative Newsmedia: 1st Place, “Vodka Yonic” by Clara Kim, Kim Green, and Abby White, Nashville Scene

2014 Association of Alternative Newsmedia: 1st Place, “Vodka Yonic” by Abby White, Ashley Spurgeon, and Kim Green, Nashville Scene

2014 Tennessee AP broadcasters: Best light feature

2013 Public Radio News Directors: 1st place, Best writing

2012 Tennessee AP broadcasters: Best short light feature

2011 Public Radio News Directors: 1st place, Best use of sound

2009 Tennessee AP broadcasters: Best use of sound, Best sports feature, Best in show (radio)

2008 Tennessee AP broadcasters: Best long light feature

2007 Tennessee AP broadcasters: Best long light feature, Best sports feature, Honorable mention

2007 Public Radio News Directors: 1st place, soft feature

2004 Public Radio News Directors: 1st place, news feature; 2nd place, series

2003 Max Karant Award for Excellence in Aviation Journalism

Random Media Mentions

Hollywood Is Calling (NPR’s On the Media) – Kato Kaelin calls me to pass on a message:

“Kim Green, this is Kato Kaelin calling…I want to tell you one really, really great thing. Hal is in love with you! He wanted me to let you know he is in love with you — [SHOUTING] forever!”

5 Tradition-Breaking Ideas for the Feminist Bride (Vogue.com) – Quoted in a fun listicle about weddings:

“It’s so hard to separate your real happiness from the pressures of others’ opinions and judgments, and I don’t have it all figured out. But with our wedding, at least, we did it the way we wanted to and didn’t let other people’s agendas influence our thinking.”

Tarta de Santiago (Style Blueprint) – In which Hal makes a delicious cake.