APPLETON, WIS. — Award-winning poet and fiction writer Alan Parker will conduct a reading of his works Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. A book signing and reception with the author will follow the reading.
Prior to his reading, Parker will discuss his writing in an open forum Tuesday, April 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Main Hall, Room 104. Both events are free and open to the public.
The author of five collections of poems, Parker is perhaps best known for “Love Song with Motor Vehicles,” in which he uses wit and irony to explore music in places poetry seldom visits. The collection earned “Notable Book of the Year” honors from the National Book Critics Circle in 2003. One of the poems from the collection, “The Cat,” was awarded the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
The National Book Critics Circle also recognized his first collection of poems, “Days Like Prose,” as a “Notable Book of 1997.”
His most recent work, 2005’s “Cry Uncle,” is a novel of small-town politics, racism and love in which a man discovers what really matters in life.
The recipient of a prestigous Pushcart Prize, Parker recently was named a finalist for the 2007 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize, a $40,000 biennial prize that honors a visionary creative work in process.
His poems have been published widely, appearing in The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Pleiades, and The Yale Review, among others. He serves as editor of The Imaginary Poets, co-editor of The Routledge Anthology of Cross-Gendered Verse and editor for North America of Who’s Who in 20th Century World Poetry.
Parker teaches at Davidson College, where he is professor of English and director of creative writing. He also holds a faculty appointment at Queens University.
His appearance is sponsored by the Mia T. Paul Poetry Fund. Established in 1998, the endowed fund brings distinguished poets to campus for public readings and to work with students on writing poetry and verse.
