Long Division

Poetry. In his seventh poetry collection, Alan Michael Parker aims to surprise. Recombining lists, fables, and mathematical equations, LONG DIVISION is formally playful, wielding irony as a lever of political resistance. Here is a writer fascinated by comedy, by sadness, and by the unexpected ways that poetry makes both possible at once. When was the last time you laughed out loud reading poems? Parker's new work is truly funny, exposing the impossibility of realism in a world where imagination is more trustworthy than experience.

In addition to his seven books of poems, Alan Michael Parker has published two novels and served as editor of the anthology, THE IMAGINARY POETS (Tupelo Press, 2005). His poems and prose have appeared in The Believer, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, Salon, The San Francisco Chronicle, Slate and elsewhere. He has received the 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. He teaches writing and literature at Davidson College and in the Queens University low-residency M.F.A. program. He lives in Davidson, North Carolina, with the artist Felicia van Bork. His most recent poetry collection is LONG DIVISION (Tupelo Press, 2012).