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Page 158 Books is thrilled to welcome author Jill McCorkle and Michael Parker in conversation to discuss their latest novels. Jill is the author of Old Crimes: and Other Stories--out Dec. 3rd. Michael's latest novel is Hello Down There--out now.About Old Crimes:
From a New York Times bestselling author ("One of our wisest storytellers"), a story collection that is funny and tragic in equal measure, about crimes large and small (Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers).
Beloved author Jill McCorkle offers an intimate look at the moments when a person’s life changes forever. A woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband’s commentary. A telephone lineman strains to communicate with his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. And a young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty.
Moving and unforgettable, the stories in Old Crimes capture moments of great intensity, longing, and affection.
Jill McCorkle has the distinction of having published her first two novels on the same day in 1984. Of these novels, the New York Times Book Review said: "one suspects the author of The Cheer Leader is a born novelist. With July 7th, she is also a full grown one." Since then she has published five other novels—most recently, Hieroglyphics—and four collections of short stories. Five of her books have been named New York Times notable books and four of her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories. McCorkle has received the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, the North Carolina Award for Literature and the Thomas Wolfe Prize; she was recently inducted into the NC Literary Hall of Fame. McCorkle has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, and NC State where she remains affiliated with the MFA Program in creative writing and she is core faculty in the Bennington Writing Seminars.
About Hello Down There:
Haunted by a secret tragedy, Edwin, son of the richest family in a small Southern town, fights to overcome his addiction to Morph*ne and face the truth that his parents have worked to obscure.
This timeless debut novel of master Southern storyteller Michael Parker takes readers to a small Southern town in the 1950s where Edwin Keane suffers from the lasting effects of a horrible accident—a broken back, a Morph*ne addiction, and a town of enabling eccentrics. Redemption comes in the form of a young woman—the daughter of a poor farmer—and a couple of the town’s most interesting outcasts. Parker is an amazing writer. His narrative style is both lyrical and economical, making this novel a true Southern gothic classic.
Michael Parker is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. He has received four career-achievement awards: the Hobson Award for Arts and Letters, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the R. Hunt Parker Award, and the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Prize. The three-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, Parker has published short fiction and nonfiction in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Oxford American, Runner’s World, Men's Journal, and others. He taught for twenty-seven years in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and since 2009 he has been on the faculty of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
415 Brooks Street, Wake Forest, NC, United States, North Carolina 27587
