CASEY PARKS is a Washington Post reporter who covers gender and family issues. She was previously a staff reporter at the Jackson (Miss.) Free Press and spent a decade at The Oregonian, where she wrote about race and LGBTQ+ issues and was a finalist for the Livingston Award. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Oxford American, ESPN, USA Today, and The Nation. A former Spencer Fellow at Columbia University, Parks was most recently awarded the 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for her work on Diary of a Misfit. Parks lives in Portland.
"Diary of a Misfit is at once dewy-eyed and diligent, capricious
and capacious, empathetic and exacting. It’s as richly textured as
a pot of gumbo. As a work of autobiography, it’s maximalist;
subtitled A Memoir and a Mystery, it certainly is both of those
things, but it’s also an assiduous family history, a
decades-spanning community chronicle à la Sarah Broom’s The Yellow
House, a coming-out narrative, a dive into Christian denominations,
a wrestling with Southern heritage... Most moving is Parks’s
depiction of a queer lineage, her assertion of an ancestry of
outcasts, a tapestry of fellow misfits into which the marginalized
will always, for better or worse, fit." —Michelle Hart, New York
Times Book Review (cover review)
"Parks...[is] a vivid storyteller...Readers familiar with her work
in the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine know her as a
thoughtful, precise journalist who communicates her characters’
humanity and the stakes of a story through evocative
details....Parks’s writing shines in the story that she can
meticulously report: her own...Parks is an exceptional chronicler
of her family and experience. She leans into the beats of stories
she’s expertly honed over the years...She manages the rare feat of
writing about her family with both an awareness of its flaws and a
respect for privacy. She chooses revealing anecdotes carefully,
alluding to family challenges that aren’t hers to share. A
self-described listener, she chronicles her pain at a remove...Some
scenes feel straight out of Mary Karr, but without the raw
rancor...a compelling triumph" --Charley Locke, The Washington
Post
"[A] stunning work of memoir and reportage.... Delving deep into
ideas of sexuality, identity, otherness, and love, Diary of a
Misfit is a must-read." —Sarah Neilson, Them
"A beautifully written and deeply reported epic about what it means
to be Southern, what it means to be queer, what it means to belong
to a family. Casey Parks is a tender, brilliant storyteller. I was
haunted and moved by this account of the different Americas she
inhabits." —Claire Dederer, author of Love and Trouble
“Parks' engrossing book is an excavation—emotional, familial,
spiritual, and perhaps above all else, regional. The Louisiana she
can't leave behind—and one mysterious inhabitant in
particular—haunt her early adulthood as she grapples with what it
means to be a daughter, a writer, an outlier, and, in her own way,
a believer.” —Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply
"...the beauty of Diary of a Misfit is that it sits in that space,
allowing Parks to unfold her family's history, her understanding of
herself, and her obsession with Roy slowly and methodically...
In the process, she also beautifully portrays her interview
subjects in the South and what she both loves and finds painful
about home. This blend of reportage, research, and memoir has been
blooming recently, with books like The Yellow House by Sarah M.
Broom and My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland
exemplifying the interconnectedness of the personal, political,
historical, and academic realms. Parks' book is a wonderful
addition to the genre." —Ilana Masad, NPR
"Roy Hudgins, [is] the intriguing subject of journalist Casey
Parks’s riveting first book...what gives Diary of a Misfit its
unique and lasting impact is the task undertaken and accomplished
by Parks’s memoirist self: to understand and rid herself of
self-loathing.... Her moving, empowering, searching tale is one of
the modern American South, of mother-daughter breaking and bonding,
of the pernicious effects of homophobia and bullying and hate....
Parks has written a memoir that will serve as a beacon for many
others still yearning to no longer feel like
misfits." —Meredith Maran, Oprah Daily
“You can’t look away from the riveting opening sentence of Casey
Parks’ spellbinding Diary of a Misfit... It draws you quickly in to
her atmospheric tale of self discovery after coming out as a
lesbian to her mother in her small Louisiana town... Like Harper
Lee, Parks evokes the simmering suspicions of a small Southern
town. Like Eudora Welty, she tells a poignant story of people
trying to fit into a way of life that once suited them but no
longer wears well. And like Truman Capote, she packs her memoir
with eccentric characters... Parks’ dazzling narrative gift imbues
Diary of a Misfit with all the makings of a great Southern story
that readers won’t be able to get out of their minds." —Henry L.
Carrigan Jr, BookPage (starred review)
"Parks' work of self-investigation is a fascinating, engrossing
tale about identity and belonging." —Booklist (starred review)
"A tantalizing blend of personal history and reportage.... A
brilliantly rendered and complex portrait of Southern life
alongside a tender exploration of queer belonging. Parks’s writing
is a marvel to witness." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Journalism becomes literature in this memorable meditation on
identity, belonging, and the urge to find understanding." —Kirkus
Reviews (starred review)
“Reading Casey Parks’ compelling Diary of a Misfit is like
assembling a double-sided jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes maddening,
sometimes exhilarating, ultimately rewarding. It is a master class
in how to write an atypical, exemplary memoir. Parks
reconstructs haunting and traumatic memories at the same time that
she focuses on objective investigative journalism, relying on the
resources of interviews, photographs, library microfilm, and an
elusive diary. The fulfilling discovery is an absorbing geography
of the heart—as much about places (Louisiana, Mississippi,
Portland, New York City) as it is about people...Her grandmother’s
undying curiosity about the mystery of what happened to Roy
provokes what becomes this illuminating semblance of an
autobiography wrapped in an elusive documentary linked to someone
else’s unknown history... Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir often reads
like a remarkable novel with a long list of memorable characters, a
captivating story line, and a definitive affirmation of authentic
lives. If, as she says, people write because they “want to be
understood and remembered” Parks has admirably achieved that lofty
goal.” —Robert Allen Papinchak, The Oregonian
“In Diary of a Misfit, Parks’s commitment to storytelling is
paramount. The book is an immersive, expansive look at the world of
small-town life and those who are forever marked by these spaces.
Entwined in this nuanced narrative lies a thread regarding the
challenge of empathy.... The tension that keeps Parks
suspended between geographic regions speaks to a universal
experience: the ache for a sense of belonging fed by a common love
for home. That attachment is what redeems the misfits and brings
them into the fold. This is a loving and unflinching portrait of a
search for community, imperfect but constant. . . Diary of a Misfit
is a call to linger at the table and invite others to join us.”
—Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston Globe
“Although Parks’s writing is elegant and descriptive, what is most
compelling about Diary of a Misfit is how brilliantly organized it
is. All at once, we get a biography, a memoir, a family history,
and the active history of a place that most people are unfamiliar
with. The book acts as a kind of living archive of the lives of
people who history tends to forget...In the same vein as books like
Sarah Broom’s The Yellow House, Diary of a Misfit acts as a
testament to the lives of people who are often written out of
history.” —Stef Rubino, Autostraddle
“Parks’ family members and the people of Delhi have backstories
more captivating than some fictional characters...The product is a
moving exploration of the role people we’ve never met can play in
our lives and about coming to appreciate, as Parks’ mother puts it
in the book, the ‘funky stank of home.’” —Kaylee Poche, Gambit
"The suspense continues until there are only a few pages left in
this angsty, engrossing memoir" --Terri Schlichenmeyer, Gay &
Lesbian Review
"[a] compelling debut...Diary of a Misfit provides an insightful
entry in a tradition of memoirs by Southerners reckoning with a
sense of dislocation....Parks pours all her journalistic skill into
Diary of a Misfit, shoring up legend with research and context
while acknowledging the limited facts available after the passing
of decades. But what makes Diary so moving is Parks’ artful
handling of her own vulnerability within these events. The result
is an absorbing, compassionately rendered page-turner that lingers
in the mind." --Emily Choate, Chapter 16
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