Is This a Poem?: A Conversation and Workshop | Busboys and Poets Books

Award-winning author Alan Michael Parker displays his love for playful narrative and breaking all the rules in Bingo Bango Boingo, a collection of flash fiction and stories told through Bingo cards

Flip the page. Choose your game. Is it "Community Garden Bingo"? "High School Reunion Bingo"? "Don't Hate Your Daddy Bingo"? Or are you finally ready for "Change Your Life Bingo"?

Featuring 40 Bingo cards, interspersed with flash fiction and an opportunity to try the Bingo game yourself, this is a wholly original collection. Delightful, unexpected, and tongue in cheek--they're stories, they're Bingo cards, they're wild, you'll like them. 

Following the book presentation and Q&A, Parker will lead guests through a brief writing workshop. Craft your own Bingo card, story, poem – or perhaps create something wholly original.

Alan Michael Parker is joining us on the Busboys stage for a fun evening filled with games and great conversation. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Parker will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Doors open to guests at 4:30pm and our program begins at 5:00 pm. Copies of BINGO, BANGO, BOINGO will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed. 

We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books

Alan Michael Parker is a poet, novelist, essayist, and cartoonist. He has published nine books of poetry, four novels and one book of stories, over 200 cartoons, and co-edited five other volumes. His next book, Bounce! A Guide to Single-Panel Cartoons, will be published by Duke University Press in 2027. His various awards and honors include the North Carolina Book Award in poetry, multiple selections in the Best American Poetry and the Pushcart Prize anthologies, the Fineline Prize, the Lunate500 Prize (UK), and the Medwick Award from the Poetry Society of America. As a literary citizen, for nine years he reviewed books for The New Yorker; then, in 2021, he judged the National Book Award in fiction, and in 2024, he judged the PEN/Faulkner Award in fiction. He teaches at Davidson College, where he holds the Houchens Professorship and chairs the Department of English.

BOOK DETAILS

Bingo, Bango, Boingo

By Alan Michael Parker

February 25, 2025 | Hardcover, 140 pages, $20.00

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Busboys and Poets 14th & V, 2021 14th St NW, Washington, United States

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