Interviews & Profiles
“Hilarious, profane, and profound all at once… Horny and haunted…. Parsons has written one of my favorite short story collections ever, and now one of my favorite novels.”
—Ruth Madievsky, Vanity Fair
“Parsons has created a world that feels deeply rooted in Texas culture, but mercifully devoid of any old-school, clichéd descriptions of the state… Made me laugh out loud. It’s easy to fall in love with the character. She’s a mess, but she’s trying her damnedest.”
—Dina Gachman, Texas Monthly
“I’m always looking for the weird thing, the tilted thing.”
—Lauren Korn, NPR
“Stunning, a testament to the power of prose, a portal… Reading [Parsons] is like taking a drug that amps you up and calms you down, somehow all at once.”
—Allie Rowbottom, Forever Magazine
“I try to do nothing for as long as possible. Whenever there’s a problem or some challenge, I’m like, ‘Do nothing, and then the answers will be revealed.’ It hasn’t let me down yet.”
—Elle Nash, The Creative Independent
“As a woman, as a daughter, as the sister of an addict, as a new mom, as a human being living on planet earth…this book ripped me open, turned me inside out, and then spat me out somehow more whole than before.”
—Brittany Ackerman, Write or Die
“I admire so many aspects of this novel…the self-deprecating yet sharply observant humor, the way you weave disparate elements into a cohesive whole, and of course, your unforgettably chaotic main character.”
—Rowena Leong Singer, CRAFT
“Smart and heartbreaking, We Were the Universe soars past our expectations of the form…This novel has received so much well deserved acclaim.”
—Kelley Vick, Literary Prospects
“We Were the Universe is a surreal and transcendent examination of grief, sex, motherhood, and sisterhood—and one of the year’s best books.”
—David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy
“Kimberly King Parsons joins Debutiful to discuss what advice she gives her students, how she sets goals, and the business side of publishing.”
—Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful Podcast
“Kit narrates the vicissitudes of motherhood with both a sense of humor and a stirring eye for detail…Parsons illuminated the wonders of vicarious discovery, a process that underscores parenting and fiction-writing alike.”
—Brittany Menjivar, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Lubbock-born Kimberly King Parsons’ latest tracks a more modern and everyday archetypal Texan: a new mother named Kit navigating love and grief in the Dallas suburbs.”
—Sarah Asch, Texas Standard
“We Were the Universe is a wonderfully vivid novel with a great cast of characters…It’s psychologically astute, deeply moving and funny.”
—Brad Listi, Otherppl
“A knockout…told in the most unique and hilarious interior voice. At turns quiet and melancholy and raucous and vividly alive, We Were the Universe makes for an unforgettable read.”
—Chris Holmes, Burned by Books
“Parsons talks about her debut novel, a mother’s right to disassociate, her painstaking sentence-making, Garielle Lutz, deserving her novel’s ending and more!”
—Lindsay Hunter, Live from Exile in Bookville
“Parsons captured the attention of the literary world in 2019 when Black Light was longlisted for the National Book Award. Now she has penned her debut novel, full of subtle humor and laugh-out-loud moments.”
—Beth Golay, Marginalia, KMUW/NPR
“A chat about her journey as a writer, the differences between crafting short stories and novels, and how motherhood and psychedelia play a central part in We Were the Universe.”
—Bo Thomas Newman, Antioch LitCit
Interviews
“The light on the face doesn’t change the face, it changes the perception of the face. These stories are trying to get to a true face—to that true thing that doesn’t need light to be illuminated.”
The Paris Review
“I love that reek—looking into those dark cars and seeing kids in that short, exquisitely painful phase of becoming…I’m compelled by that.”
Southwest Review
“If there’s godliness, it’s in the idea of loving every person…Every single person is living a life as rich and vivid as your life.”
Jezebel
“Why put a plane in the sky when you could put a floater on the back of somebody’s eyeball?”
Bookforum
“The first sentence of a story should be primordial—it should contain the DNA of the entire piece, and I think that concept extends to collections as a whole.”
Los Angeles Review of Books
“The first line never changes. The last line never changes.”
The Believer
“I kind of enjoy being out of control or being led around in life. There’s something I find soothing about that, going where things pull you.”
The Creative Independent
“Because she’s sung with her share of synth-heavy bands, she has an appreciation for the ‘wild weirdness of glitter rock.’”
Texas Monthly
“I respect compression above most things.”
Guernica
“I think some people feel genuinely comforted by seeing the pieces fall where they expect them to. That’s just not me. I like to be confused for as long as possible and then astonished.”
BOMB Magazine
“Black Light is a rare book. Kimberly King Parsons has delivered a work of truth and beauty that will transcend generations. If that sounds too effusive, it is not.”
Epiphany
“Just because you know you’re trapped doesn’t mean you can do anything about it.”
The Brooklyn Rail
“I love the feeling of being dropped into a world without having a lot of things explained to me. You can weave in details through the craft, but I don’t like deposits of information.”
Electric Lit
“Lived in Dallas, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Portland. Dicked around on the Internet for a bunch of years.”
Lit Hub
“The best kind of desire is on the page—you can’t touch it. It’s forever unconsummated. Perfectly on fire.”
Triangle House
“As an adolescent, I had my ego beautifully obliterated and I still—still!—feel the overwhelming affirmative effects.”
Write or Die Tribe
“There’s a lot of game playing in these stories, whether it’s children or adults behaving badly to get to a place where they can feel that glow.”
Publishers Weekly
“It’s not grand, sweeping gestures that compel me in a character—it’s a tiny facial tic, a strange word choice, a private, seemingly meaningless ritual.”
Lone Star Literary Life
“These are some of mine, for better or worse: gross motel rooms, hot girls with chipped teeth, people washing their feet, blood, gauze, glittery lip gloss, and bowling.”
Bustle
“If you can’t really let your guard down in your house—and in a lot of these stories, they can’t—then where can you?”
The Millions
“Being misunderstood is a really terrible feeling.”
The Rumpus
“I love hotel rooms, even gross ones. It’s not real life—it’s a set, artificial. I love that the person in the room above me has the bed in the same place and the same picture on the wall.”
Propeller
“Go to a movie, meet a friend for a day drink, take a walk in the woods.”
Advice to Writers
“Every story has taken its turn being my least favorite, with some of them being bigger pains in the ass than others.”
Adroit Journal
“She sees mammals in various states of decay.”
Indiana Review
