Atlantic Books to publish National Book Award longlisted ‘Black Light’ by Kimberly King Parsons

Atlantic Books is to publish Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons, a collection of short stories longlisted for the National Book Awards in 2019.

James Roxburgh acquired UK Comm (ex. Canada) rights from Meredith Kaffel Simonoff at DeFiore. Black Light will be published as a paperback original and eBook on 6 August 2020.

With raw, poetic ferocity, Black Light exposes desire’s darkest hollows – those hidden places where most of us are afraid to look. Taking us from sultry highways to cold family kitchens, from the freedom of pay-by-the-hour motels to the claustrophobia of private school dorms, these enormously perceptive and brutally unsentimental short stories are about the ache of first love, the banality of self-loathing, the scourge of addiction, the myth of marriage, and the magic and inevitable disillusionment of childhood.

In the US, where it was published in 2019, it won praise from a collection of media and other authors, including:

‘The stories in Black Light are grimy and weird, surprising, utterly lush… I loved every moment of this book.’ Carmen Maria Machado, author of In The Dream House

‘There is a reckless kind of heat to the tender, broken characters in these stories… Parsons is both unflinching and eloquent in her portrayals of people as they burn and rage.’ Paris Review

‘Exhilarating, enchanting, charming and irresistible… This is real-deal fiction.’ Los Angeles Times

‘The bad-ass gals in these terrific stories are all attitude, and as funny and appealing in their imperfection and thwarted desire as you’ll find in any fiction out there. Parsons opens and ends stories brilliantly. I just finished this book, and I’m going to read it again right away.’ Amy Hempel, author of Sing To It