February 04, 2011

Contact:   Bill Giduz

Whale Man and Frogheart. The subject matter of these new books by two English professors at Davidson College might seem related. But in fact the similarity begins and ends with their creature-inspired titles, as will quickly be apparent to those who attend a February 10 reading from the works by the authors.

Alan Michael Parker directs Davidson's creative writing program.

Whale Man, by Professor of English and writing program director Alan Michael Parker, is a wacky fictional tale about a character who endeavors to build a land-locked whale to benefit from the estate of his deceased mother. He soon finds himself dragged into a criminal conspiracy of sketchy characters, a media circus and a congregation of reverential followers.

Frogheart, by Professor of English Shireen Campbell, is a memoir about her family's experiences with her eldest son's heart defect. It begins with the shock of diagnosis at three months old, and follows the emotional upheavals of open heart surgery, rehabilitation, and unexpectedly altered lifestyles necessitated by the condition. The son, Jonathan, is now 10 years old and doing well, though he faces additional surgery in the years ahead.

Both authors will read from their works in the English Department's annual "Davidson Reads" showcase of faculty talent on Thursday evening, February 10. The event will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the C. Shaw Smith 900 Room in the Alvarez College Union, and there is no charge to attend. For more information call 704-894-2254.

Shireen Campbell directs the college's Writing Center

Parker has written a previous novel, and written or edited almost a dozen other volumes of poetry and published many reviews. Campbell has previously published creative nonfiction online and in print anthologies, but Frogheart is her first book.

Campbell explained, "I quickly found myself needing to write about the situation, not as therapy, but as a way of trying to understand it both medically and emotionally. I became curious about the scientific history of heart surgery, and writing helped me put our family's experience in that broader context. None of that knowledge makes a bit of difference in moments when I was scared of losing my child, but it did help me step outside of my own concerns and be a little less self-absorbed."

Campbell, who directs the college's Writing Center and teaches courses in memoir writing and creative nonfiction, believes her own publication exercise has also made her a better teacher. She said, "I've been able to talk in class about my own work in progress, which I think helps students understand that all writers, no matter their age or experience, face the same challenges of finding a voice, putting words on paper, and endlessly revising."

Frogheart will be published this coming summer by Wising Up Press of Decatur, Ga., a publisher of works that prompt discussion about issues of social concern.

Parker's Whale Man has recently been released by WordFarm Press in Seattle. As an over-the-top comedy, it is completely different in tone from his first novel, Cry Uncle, which concerned race relations in a small town. Parker deliberately decided to write a comedy in order to stretch his literary wings. He said, "Learning to trust comedy is hard, but I've always enjoyed comedy in literature, film and conversation, and used it some in my poetry. I worked to make a book that made me laugh, and I'm hoping readers will have the same reaction."

He also went at his task with a conscious effort to exercise more literary ambition at the sentence level through word-play, attention to description, metaphor and alliteration. "I'm trying to write better books, and I hope the text of this book reflects some success in that ambition," he said.

Parker has amassed outstanding credits as a poet, editor and reviewer. For fifteen years a book reviewer for The New Yorker, he has published poetry and prose in The Believer, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, Salon, The San Francisco Chronicle and Slate. He has received a Pushcart Prize, The Fineline Prize from The Mid-American Review and The Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, among other awards. In addition to his faculty position at Davidson, he teaches in the Queens University low-residency M.F.A. program.

Parker will spend several weeks traveling this spring and summer to promote Whale Man. He has several other projects underway, including publication of another volume of poetry, Holier Than This, in 2012. Closer to home, on March 17 he will unveil an exhibition on campus of his own writing in conjunction with images by Professor of Art Herb Jackson.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,900 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
###