Jeff Parker's invasion of Ann Arbor began last night as he was the first participant in Greenhills' Life of the Mind Series. Jeff, who is the Visiting Writer at Greenhills this year, read a bit, discussed the craft of fiction a bit, and involved students in the reading of a story, as well as responded to many questions from the audience.
Peter Fayroian, Head of Greenhills, began the evening, introducing the Life of the Mind Series, and acknowledging the presence of Steve Gillis, who is funding the LotM Series this year. Fayroian also described the intention of the series as a means of giving back to the Ann Arbor community.
The English Department Chair, Stella Beale, then introduced Jeff. She brought up the fact that as Jeff went through the process of being brought in as Visiting Writer for this school year, her excitement level grew. First off, was the list of authors vying for the job - she skimmed over their publications and a slew of titles of stories Jeff has published drew her attention. Next up was Jeff's interview, in which his 'hipster affect' blew most of those decision makers away. And since Jeff has taken the position, her excitement has only grown, specifically as they were emailing back and forth about Jeff's plans for the evening - and he requested having 5 or 6 students ready to participate.
Jeff read a story, Mosquito, in a straightforward manner. It was a story that frequently drew laughs from the crowd (which I'd estimate at between 50 and 75 people - students and non).
Jeff then noted that the flyer for the evening stated he would be discussing The Craft of Fiction, but that was not going to be the case. He then brought up a story he had just heard on NPR before arriving - it discussed the fact that a plane landed on highway 96 just west of Lansing and nobody was hurt, either in the plane, or on the highway. "This is not a story." Why did it land there? They did not say. "This is why I'm not a journalist."
Next up was the first five pages or so of a project Jeff is working on with a graphic artist (this project will be being published by a group out of Seattle in the near future). Jeff discussed how the process for this work has been different for him as he writes some text and passes it on to the artist - who sends back his drawings. As Jeff reviews these drawings, they have caused him to rethink the characters and go back and tweak some of their dialogue, internal comments, etc. Once again, much laughter from the crowd during this tale
Jeff's last story was "Differing Strategies for Jenga Foundation Structure by Herb "Ivan" Humbert". The story was indeed about the game, Jenga, and the two main options one has while playing - removing blocks from the middle of each row of the tower, or removing the two outer blocks. The story had six characters, and Jeff and six students from Greenhills performed it.
Jeff played the role of Herb, the only American in the story. Jackie played his wife, Liza. Tyler played the role of Madine, a Russian with the opposite viewpoint of Herb in terms of Jenga. Rachel took on the role of Eva, Madine's wife, and Max played Bipcus, his brother with mental problems. Rounding out Jeff's crew were Drew playing the role of Mamet, the Turkish neighbor, and Jean, who added sound effects to the story.
As a quick aside, Jeff noted that the story did in fact contain some potentially offensive language, but being the good teacher that he is, in no way would he put such language into the mouths of students - so for the purposes of the evening, the phrase 'gummy floss' was substitued for lower level profanity, and 'asparagus smoker' was used for upper level profanity.
The story had loads of humor and fine Russian accents throughout - especially when Jeff noted afterwards that they had not had any rehearsals.
Q&A's followed with the following highlights:
Q: What is your favorite word or adjective as a writer?
A: I notice I use the word bulbous a lot. In general I don't like adjectives a lot.
Q: Why did you choose the mosquito, such an annoying bug, if you were trying to emulate Kafka (which came up earlier) and needed to use a bug? Why not a fly or some other bug?
A: I was in a bad mood for about a year. I feel better now.
Q: When did you become interested in writing?
A: In 4th Grade when I wrote a Choose Your Own Adventure Book. Well, 10 pages of one. Then when I found out I had too much trouble with calculus to major in chemistry I switched over to architecture. But the first year is very difficult, up all night drawing, etc. and I was working my way through college. Then I remembered those 10 pages I wrote and majored in journalism.
Stella couldn't have nailed Parker down any more solid than with her usage of 'hipster affect' and that's just how he comes across as a reader, and as one discussing literature. A quick look in the crowd might point out something valuable as well. As a fan of many local bands in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area two decades ago, it was always interesting to note which bands brought out more than just their own set of fans, but also brought out many of those from other local bands. Those were the bands to go see. Last night, Parker's reading pulled many of the non-UM, Ann Arbor literary mafia from their homes - the aforementioned Steve Gillis. Keith Taylor (who does have UM ties), Stefan Kiesbye, Aaron Burch and Mike Alber were all present. Parker is definitely an author to go see when he's around (and the good news is, he has two more readings around here this month!).
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