Q/A w/ Jade Parks

Posted by Nick Martinez in Creative Writing

As a part of an ongoing Q&A session with the Creative Writing and Literature Department’s Senior Reading Class, Jackalope Magazine sat down with Jade Parks. Parks discussed the joys of poetry and fiction, hating lemonade and cross-time SciFi orgies.

Jade Parks clowning around.

Parks reads with Michaela Rempel and Adriel Contreras at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 28 in O’Shaughnessy Performance Space.

Jackalope Magazine: How dare you?

Jade Parks: I tried not, but it wasn’t nearly as fun.

JM: How did you get into writing?

JP: As soon as I figured out people actually had to create the stories I read, I realized wanted to be one of those people.

JM: What genre do you work in and why?

JP: I generally toggle between fiction and poetry. Weird pairing, I know. It’s not the usual, but I love the beauty both genres offer and don’t feel like choosing.

JM: What three words would you use to describe your writing?

JP: Sassy, heady, surreal.

JM: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever written?

JP: I struggled to find my voice freshman year and I wrote a short story that was supposed to be about the writing process, but turned into a rant about hating lemonade. It was set in a dream. Still makes me shutter. I don’t even know how it happened.

JM: How do you balance work and family?

JP: On a giant scale—Scrooge McDuck style.

JM: Given your taste in fiction, Marry, Fuck, Kill: Aldous Huxley, Neil Gaiman, Terry Patchett.

JP: That list is so freaking hard. Ugh. I want to marry/fuck every one of them. You know, if I had a time machine and could do it while they were all living. Except for Neil. He’s still kicking. Anyway…Probably marry Neil, fuck Terry, kill Aldous. Only because there’s really no way to say his name sexily, or easily for that matter. That’s important. And think about nicknames: Aldie? Aldo? Huxie? Couldn’t do it. Intellectually, they are all so sexy! Can I have some sort of cross-time SciFi orgy? Practice mind-sex polygamy? I think they would approve.