162. Em J Parsley | You, From Below: a new novella, and environmentalism

Arts Calling

Weekly shoutout: New classes and projects from friend of the show, playwright Sarah Congress!

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Hi there,

We're back! Today I am delighted to be arts calling author Em J Parsley! (emjparsley.com)

About our guest: Em J Parsley (they/he) is a fiction writer, poet, educator, and environmentalist who received their MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and makes their home in rural Kentucky with their beautiful devil-cat, Griffin. He is a 2024 Artist-In-Residence at Wormfarm Institute and Art Farm, and their work has been published or is upcoming in Silk Road Review, Screen Door Review, ANMLY, Birdcoat Quarterly, The New Flash Fiction Review, and various other places in print and around the internet. Their poetry chapbook, the anonym gospels, won the 2023 Apogee Poetry Award and is available through April Gloaming Publishing. You can follow him on instagram @emjparsley.

You, From Below: Now available from Split/Lip Press! https://www.splitlippress.com/you-from-below

About You, From Below: When an Appalachian holler town is suddenly swallowed into the earth, its sole survivor embarks on a journey up a nearby mountain to get answers. With a mysterious envelope in their pocket that they know they must deliver, the narrator encounters a faceless beekeeper, an undying woman, and a righteous schoolteacher of a town that was raptured overnight while confronting their own past and the death of both the town and people they left behind. Em J Parsley’s You, From Below burrows into the ecological, economic, and emotional state of Central Appalachia to examine its past, present, and the nature of reciprocity through this speculative, introspective, fable-like exploration of collapse and regeneration.

Thanks for this amazing conversation, Em J! All the best!

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Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro.

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