'The stories in Black Light are grimy and weird, surprising, utterly lush... I loved every moment of this book.' Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
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A black light illuminates that which the eye doesn't see, uncovering what is hidden in plain sight.
In this raw, compassionate, debut collection Kimberly King Parsons casts light onto the weird, the intimate, the eerie and the sublimely beautiful with unflinching gaze and ferocious eloquence. Over twelve crackling stories, each a glorious escape hatch, she captures the bright ache of first love, the claustrophobic shadows of desire, the obsessive nature of friendship and the rapturous pull of taboo. Filled with a frenetic longing for connection, her reckless yet resilient heroines exhilarate and charm as they pursue the promise of elsewhere.
With psychedelic energy and deep humanity, Black Light chews over the messiness of being alive, the unsteadiness of hope and the ecstasies of coming of age.
Review
The stories in Black Light are grimy and weird, surprising, utterly lush... I loved every moment of this book. ? Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
Exhilarating, enchanting, charming and irresistible... This is real-deal fiction. ? Los Angeles Times
There is a reckless kind of heat to the tender, broken characters in these stories... Parsons is both unflinching and eloquent in her portrayals of people as they burn and rage. ? Paris Review
Wild and compassionate... Every story in this collection is beyond remarkable, and Parsons proves herself to be a gutsy country-punk poet with a keen eye and a stubbornly unique sensibility. ? NPR
Kimberly King Parsons' weird, intimate, enchanting debut does a service to the short story form... The writing sings at an undeniably pleasing pitch, with many of the sentences hitting such high notes that it feels breathtaking. ? Lit Hub, "The Best Queer Debuts of 2019"
Just keeps getting better as you turn the pages... Wisdom and humor are so thick on the ground you could find a sentence worth quoting on every page... Comparisons have been made to Denis Johnson, Karen Russell, Carmen Maria Machado... and we'll add Angela Carter. The Angela Carter of Lubbock, Texas. ? Kirkus Reviews
An incredibly satisfying reading experience... Perhaps the greatest strength of this collection lies in its weird, eerie, and sublimely beautiful details of setting and character. . . . Vividly rendered in a Texas setting that bursts off the page like Fourth of July fireworks. Black Light demands the attention of all the reader's senses. ? Electric Literature
Wise and funny, Black Light takes your breath regularly with its elegant observations. ? The Millions
These are stories bursting with feeling. Stories of heartbreak and humor, lust and friendship. It's the kind of book that will break your heart while reminding you of the lush possibilities of language. ? BOMB Magazine
Black Light is an unshakable debut, a collection of stories that will grip you under its spell until its closing notes. Compulsively readable, this book is as much a love letter to language as it is to the natural world, the darkened corners of desire, and the absurdities of girlhood. Gutsy, loud, and so very Texas, this one moved me in a tectonic way. You'll underline every sentence. ? Bustle
In lithe, lyrical prose à la Amy Hempel and Noy Holland, Parsons's short fiction parses the addictions and desires of Texan girls and women, and will break your heart even as it makes you laugh. ? O, The Oprah Magazine
The bad-ass gals in these terrific stories are all attitude, and as funny and appealing in their imperfection and thwarted desire as you'll find in any fiction out there. Parsons opens and ends stories brilliantly. I just finished this book, and I'm going to read it again right away. ? Amy Hempel, author of Sing to It
About the Author
Born in Lubbock, Texas, Kimberly King Parsons received her MFA from Columbia University. Her fiction has been published or is forthcoming in The Paris Review, Best Small Fictions 2017, New South, Black Warrior Review, No Tokens, Joyland, Ninth Letter, The Kenyon Review and elsewhere.
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