Also, I should mention that I worked on these stories as I was working on a Serious Project, and for a long time I only considered them my sexy little side pieces, something I was doing for myself and nobody else. My process is sort of glacial, with revisions taking years. I’m not sure if this is heartening to hear or if I should be embarrassed about it, but drafts of some stories in Black Light go as far back as 2005. KIMBERLY KING PARSONS: Thanks so much for saying that. Can you give some insight into how you put this collection together? Each story has its own cast of characters who have their own wants and needs. GENE KWAK: Kim, there are such impressive ways that this collection coheres, and yet it doesn’t feel repetitive. And if you haven’t already read her stories or spied her bylines, you’re about to get to know her in a real big way. In addition, Kimberly King Parsons is getting buzzy, word-of-mouth props from the likes of T Kira Madden, Amy Hempel, and Carmen Maria Machado. And while they tend to center Texas, they cover all types of relationships: mother-daughter fantasy storytelling, back-biting co-worker drama, confusing young queer love. Stories take place in living rooms, darkened movie theaters, motel rooms, highways, private schools, and gas stations. Black Light covers lots of ground, both literally and figuratively. I’ve been following her work since 2017 and was over the moon to learn that in August 2019, her book of short stories, Black Light, was published by Vintage, with a novel forthcoming from Knopf tentatively next year. Her characters don’t just speak so much as they utter things from their bodies.

It’s not just in the words or turns of phrase either it’s their posture too. WHEN I FIRST READ the work of Kimberly King Parsons, I felt like I’d stumbled across a long-lost literary cousin: someone else attuned to the compelling yammer of common folk, the voice of the overburdened and underappreciated - everyday people.

Kimberly king parsons