An Austin, Texas, author who won critical acclaim for his first novel about life inside a penitentiary will read March 22 at Mississippi State University.
Alexander Parsons, whose 2001 "Leaving Disneyland" won the Associated Writing Programs' Thomas Dunne Books Award, will give an 8 p.m. reading at the Colvard Union small auditorium. His public presentation is sponsored by the English department's Visiting Writers Series.
"Leaving Disneyland," described by critics as "brutally honest and unsparing," tells the story of Doc, a character eligible for parole after serving 16 years for the slaying of his daughter's abusive husband.
The prison system's complex relationships and codes of loyalty are the subject of a novel compared to the works of contemporary writers Tom Wolfe and Don DeLillo.
A New Mexico native, Parsons is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Iowa Writers Workshop.
For more information about his Starkville appearance, telephone the English department at 662-325-3644.
