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PRAISE FOR BINGO BANGO BOINGO
"These stories are pithy, whimsical, ironic, and poignant by turn... a pleasant, chatty overlay of language that sometimes parts to reveal a startling moment of insight." –Kirkus Reviews
"The book is a study in the intermeshing of form and content, an illustration of how form can shape narrative even when narrative seems to resist shaping. Bingo Bango Boingo is fun, imaginative and ruminative in the way that it excavates and captures the small moments and large yearnings of life. It is a book to read slowly and to return to often, not just for its content but also its cheekily daring form." –Southern Review of Books
"The flash is fantastic. Parker shows mastery over the form with pieces of varying length and style, his long career in poetry and flash fiction manifests itself in the strength of his writing and the imagery packed into the tiny boxes of a bingo card...Parker has written Bingo Bango Boingo as a thoughtful, entertaining, and engaging collection of flash fiction and bingo cards, with something for every reader. As the book claims on its back cover, you’ll probably like it." –Mānoa Journal
PRAISE FOR Alan Michael Parker and CHRISTMAS IN JULY
“A thoroughly unsentimental novel...Parker is a master of tonal complexity.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Parker’s narrative crackles and swirls, spinning in surprising directions, landing with a totally unexpected impact." —Lit Hub
“Parker’s background in poetry is on full display in this novel in stories that follows Christmas Danzig, a 13-year-old girl with terminal cancer....Each tight and poignant story within is told from the perspective of one of the many misfit toys that Christmas meets along the way. All of these lovable goons and more make for a warm, fresh telling of a tragically familiar plight.”—Booklist
“This book isn't a series of morality tales, where the specter of death in the guise of a thirteen-year-old girl brings people to righteousness. Instead, it brilliantly shows how messed up we all are, dying or not.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Christmas Danzig, a girl ‘in the middle of growing up,’ charms both resident and reader with her fractured past, her haunting present, and her inevitable future [...] Parker delivers a first-rate heartbreaker that glows with regret, wit, and, above all, compassion.”
—Jon Pineda, Let's No One Get Hurt
“‘In case of ghost, break glass.’ Beautifully touching, funny, and accurate.”—Terese Svoboda, Anything That Burns You
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alan Michael Parker is the author or editor of nineteen books, including the novels Christmas in July and The Committee on Town Happiness, both with Dzanc Books. He holds the Houchens Chair at Davidson College, where he chairs the Department of English. His awards include the NC Book Award, three Pushcart Prizes, two Best American Poetry selections, and the Fineline Prize. A book reviewer for The New Yorker for nine years, he has judged the 2021 National Book Award in Fiction, as well the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction.
