Kimberly “Kimba” J. Dalferes is a former Justice Department official whose publications, until most recently, focused on criminal and juvenile justice issues. She has written on diverse topics including girls in the juvenile justice system, disproportionate minority confinement, community safety and mobilization, and high visibility traffic enforcement. While at the National Crime Prevention Council (where she worked after leaving the Justice Department in 2001), her responsibilities included the publication of the annual report Mobilizing the Nation to Prevent Crime, Violence and Substance Abuse. She recently served as the Editor of the Rural Meth Debrief, the monthly publication of the Rural Law Enforcement Methamphetamine Initiative.
In 2010 Dalferes began to pursue a lifelong dream of writing and publishing essays that center upon her many personal experiences, including growing up as a child of limited means in South Florida; managing a self-financed college education; balancing work as a federal official with the joys of single motherhood; and navigating the amusing challenges of being a second-time-around wife.
Her first essay Rubberbands was published by Marco Polo Quarterly (recently renamed Marco Polo Arts Magazine). This was followed by the publication of Trivial Pursuits by Hippocampus Magazine. Both Rubberbands and Trivial Pursuits are included in her first book I Was In Love With a Short Man Once which was published in November 2011. The author is now working on her second book, tentatively titled: Magical Power-Fishing Panties. Her essay Exposed Temptations was recently selected as a winner of the 2013 Virginia Writers Club Summer Shorts Competition, and her essay Nutter House will be featured in the upcoming anthology Voices From Smith Mountain Lake (to be released November 2013).
Dalferes is a native Floridian, but has spent the past eighteen years pretending to be a Virginian. Her accomplishments have included successfully threading a sewing bobbin, landing a 35 pound Alaskan King salmon, and scoring a ceramic sangria pitcher at an estate sale for $1. She recently discovered that there is a very real possibility that she might be related to Princess Margaret Tudor, the sister of King Henry the VIII (on her mama’s side). A proud Florida State University graduate, Kimba often sings the Seminole fight song out loud for no reason other than she still knows all the words. She currently divides her time between Fairfax and Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia with her husband Greg, dog Taz, Bonz the cat, and occasionally her son Jimmy, when he is home from college.
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