English professor to talk about ‘The Innocent Party’

Aimee Parkison will share the story behind the captivating, imaginative book “The Innocent Party” at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 13, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall, as part of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Personally Speaking series. (Note this is a location change from the previously reported J. Murrey Atkins Library).

A fiction writer and a poet, Parkison also is an associate professor of English. She teaches creative writing and is the coordinator of the creative writing program at UNC Charlotte. She currently is working on a new story collection, a screenplay and a historical novel. Her primary areas of interest include fiction writing, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, film studies and women’s studies.

Critics have hailed Parkison as a new distinct voice in contemporary fiction. In the Nov. 13 Personally Speaking talk, Parkison will share details of a book that slowly peels away layers of social interaction to consider the magical, frightening and essential elements of life. According to Parkison, she learns from her own characters as her stories progress, attributing her decision to become a fiction writer to a desire to gain control over elements of life.

Her works include “Woman with the Dark Horses” and fiction and poetry pieces published in literary magazines, anthologies and academic journals. Parkison has a new book under contract for 2014, a short poetic novel called “The Petals of Your Eyes,” about kidnapped girls who become actors in a secret theater.

Parkison is the recipients of a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship, a Writers at Work Fellowship, and a Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize from the North American Review. “Women with Dark Horses” won the first Starcherone Fiction Prize.

Most recently, Parkison received a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in Prose Writing and a Hearst Fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society for her current work in progress, a historical literary novel titled “The Dumb Supper.” Set in Concord, Mass., in the 19th century, the novel explores the hidden sexual implications in parlor games and holiday courtship rituals of Victorian Americans.

“We invite the community to discover the stories behind Parkison’s book and the other fascinating books in our series,” said Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the college. “These (Personally Speaking) talks further connect the community with the college’s faculty and their research in a way that invites conversation and exploration.”

The Personally Speaking series is co-sponsored by the college and Atkins Library. A reception follows each free lecture. Email RSVPS to clas-event@uncc.edu or call 704-687-0082.