Morgan Parker (writer) explained

Occupation:Poet, editor, novelist
Nationality:American
Notableworks:There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé
Education:Columbia University (BA)
New York University (MFA)

Morgan Parker (born December 19, 1987) is an American poet, novelist, and editor. She is the author of poetry collections Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night (Switchback Books, 2015),[1] There are More Beautiful Things than Beyoncé (Tin House Books, 2017),[2] and Magical Negro (Tin House Books, 2019), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also author of the young adult novel, Who Put This Song On (Delacorte Press, 2019). She has been described as a "multidisciplinary phenom" for her diverse body of work.[3]

Personal Life & Education

Parker completed her bachelor's degree in anthropology and creative writing at Columbia University[4] and her MFA in poetry at New York University.[5] Parker was born and raised in Southern California before attending school in New York. She moved back to Southern California in 2017.

Career

Parker previously served as editor at Amazon Publishing's Little A and Day One. She has taught creative writing at Columbia University, co-curates the Poets With Attitude (PWA) reading series with Tommy Pico, is the creator and host of Reparations, Live! at the Ace Hotel in New York,[6] and is a member of The Other Black Girl Collective[7] with poet and performer Angel Nafis.[8]

Her poetry has been featured in publications including The Awl, Poetry Foundation,[9] Tin House, and others. Her work was also included in Why I Am Not A Painter (Argos Books), The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Black Girl Magic: The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2 and Best American Poetry 2016.

In December 2015, she was Poetry Foundation's featured blogger.[10]

Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night, Switchback Books, 2015

Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night was Parker's debut collection, published in 2015, was rereleased in both the UK and US in 2021. In an interview with the London Review Bookshop upon the book rerelease, Parker discusses and reflects on her art with Rachel Long.[11] In this they also discuss the importance of spoken word and humor, where Parker's boldness gives the poems a life beyond the page, weaving between humor, pathos and collapses the distinction between the personal and political.

The rerelease opens with an introduction by Danez Smith:

Morgan Parker knows we are looking. You could say Morgan Parker considers audience; I say she peeps game. She knows on the other side of the poem is another person, their being, their ways, their looking. These pages become screens for Parker to set the conditions of that witnessing, to set a control for the wildness of lyric and living captured in this collection. (Are they Morgan. Kinda. Yes. Maybe. No. And.) find themselves dreaming up Real World audition tapes, giving Real Housewives confessions, launching urgent and prayer-filled questions at Miss Black America. They know we're watching. Morgan knows. She looks back.[12]

Other Works

Parker's nonfiction essay collection You Get What You Pay For was published on March 12, 2024.[13] It was featured as one of Time Magazine's best new books of March 2024.[14] Parker said in an interview with Vogue that completing the book was taxing due to the vulnerable nature of the subject matter.

Awards and honors

Bibliography and work

A partial list of Parker's publications

Cover Art

Cover art for the first edition of Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night features an adaptation of work by Sam Vernon. The first U.S. edition of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé features commissioned artwork by Mickalene Thomas. The second edition features the photo Portrait of a Woman Fallen from Grace, 1987 by Carrie Mae Weems.[20]

Further works

Parker also writes essays and articles in between publishing her books and poetry.[21]

Selected List of Published Poems!Title!Year!Publication/Anthology!Reprinted/Collected
Magical Negro #217: Diana Ross Finishing a Rib in Alabama, 1990s2018Black Girl Magic (The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2) Haymarket Books, 1st ed. 18.Magical Negro
Magical Negro #607: Gladys Knight on the 200th Episode of The Jeffersons2018Black Girl Magic (The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2) Haymarket Books, 1st ed. 54.Magical Negro
Magical Negro #80: Brooklyn2018Black Girl Magic (The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2) Haymarket Books, 1st ed. 79.Magical Negro
Let Me Handle My Business, Damn2015Poetry Magazine, April 2015There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé; The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 1
Everything Will Be Taken Away after Adrian PiperPaper Bag Online Literary Arts Journal Issue No. 8[22] Best American Poetry 2016; Magical Negro
The Gospel of Jesus' WifePaper Bag Online Literary Arts Journal Issue No. 8There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé
Ode to Fried Chicken's Guest Appearance on Scandal (Alternate Title: Poem for Fried Chicken on Scandal)Paper Bag Online Literary Arts Journal Issue No. 8Magical Negro

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Other People's Comfort Keeps Me up at Night - Switchback Books. switchbackbooks.com. en. 2017-07-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20170701170536/http://switchbackbooks.com/comfort.html. 2017-07-01. dead.
  2. Web site: Home Tin House. Tin House. en-US. 2017-07-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20170521174032/http://www.tinhouse.com/store/product/there-are-more-beautiful-things-than-beyonce-morgan-parker/. 2017-05-21. dead.
  3. Web site: 2024-02-21 . Morgan Parker's New Essay Collection Imagines a World Where Black Women Are (Truly) Safe . 2024-03-12 . Vogue . en-US.
  4. http://www.morgan-parker.com/about/ About
  5. Web site: There's Poetry About Beyoncé Now—And It's Amazing | Mother Jones . 2022-02-19 . 2017-05-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170520202833/http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/02/morgan-parker-beyonc%C3%A9-poetry . dead .
  6. Web site: From the Stacks: Morgan Parker & Tommy Pico. 2018-09-12. Poetry Center. en. 2020-03-22.
  7. Web site: The Other Black Girl Collective. Collective. The Other Black Girl. The Other Black Girl Collective. en. 2017-07-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20180109014801/http://www.otherblackgirl.com/. 2018-01-09. dead.
  8. Web site: Isokawa. Dana. Fractures Through Time: Our Eleventh Annual Look at Debut Poets. Poets & Writers. 15 December 2015. Poets & Writers Inc.. 15 April 2016.
  9. Web site: Let Me Handle My Business, Damn by Morgan Parker. 2017-07-16. Poetry Foundation. en-us. Poetry Magazine. 2017-07-17.
  10. Web site: Poets & Writers Looks at 2015 Debut Poetry Collections by Harriet Staff. 2017-07-16. Poetry Foundation. en-us. Poetry Foundation. 2017-07-17.
  11. Web site: Morgan Parker & Rachel Long: Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night . 2022-07-01 . London Review Bookshop . en-GB.
  12. Book: Parker, Morgan . Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night . Corsair Books . 2021 . 9781472156273 . London . IX . English.
  13. Book: Parker, Morgan . You Get What You Pay For: Essays . One World . 2024 . 9780525511441.
  14. 2024-02-29 . Here Are the 13 Books You Should Read in March . 2024-03-12 . TIME . en.
  15. Web site: Fellows. Cave Canem. Cave Canem Foundation. 2016-04-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20160404114521/http://cavecanempoets.org/profiles?page=P. 2016-04-04. dead.
  16. Web site: Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night. Switchbackbooks.com. November 20, 2019.
  17. Book: Pushcart Prize XL Best of the Small Presses 2016. 927405014.
  18. Web site: NEA Fellowship List 2017. Arts.gov. November 20, 2019.
  19. Web site: Announcing the 2019 Award Winners . Bookcritics.org . Beth Parker . March 12, 2020 . March 13, 2020.
  20. Web site: There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé Preview. Tin House. November 20, 2019.
  21. Web site: Essays & Articles . 2022-07-01 . MORGAN PARKER . en-US.
  22. Web site: Paper Bag Issue No. 8. Paper Bag. 2019-11-06.