Morgan Parker
Poetry, she says, is the ‘lyric and sensory backbone’ of all her work, including the new essay collection ‘You Get What You Pay For.’ Thank Jay-Z for the title, and a former shrink for steering her from self-help.
What books are on your night stand?
The craft anthology “How We Do It,” edited by the great Jericho Brown, and Shayla Lawson’s astounding “How to Live Free in a Dangerous World.”
Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).
Probably on the smoking patio of a wine bar at happy hour on a sunny day, with a pencil in my hand and Dorothy Ashby or Ambrose Akinmusire playing through noise-canceling headphones.
How do you organize your books?
Loosely or not at all. This is much to the horror of my Virgo pals, and it’s something I’ve vowed to work on. Still, I doubt I’ll ever be an alphabetical type, and clearly I find genre segregation constricting. I do group things thematically, or even interpersonally — music biographies, Black Panthers, Harlem Renaissance; Jessica Hopper is next to John Giorno, and Chase Berggrun’s “R E D” is next to “Dracula”; Julie Buntin’s “Marlena” is beside her husband Gabe Habash’s “Stephen Florida”; Alison C. Rollins is next to her partner Nate Marshall is next to his bestie José Olivarez. At some point Hilton Als’s “White Girls” ended up next to “Male Fantasies,” and I don’t think I’ll ever separate them.
What’s the last book that made you laugh?
“Erasure,” by Percival Everett. I picked up a used copy after seeing Cord Jefferson’s brilliant adaptation, “American Fiction,” and even on a reread, it made me laugh out loud from the first page.
That made you cry?
Weird or obnoxious if I say my own? Before that, it was probably Y.A.
Which genres do you avoid?
There’s an essay in “You Get What You Pay For” where I mention reading a selfhelp book (as recommended by my nowformer psychiatrist), but I’d never read one before and have not since.
How does your poetry relate to your essay writing?
Poetry is under everything. It’s the lyric and sensory backbone. (Everyone knows the best prose writers write and read poetry.) But while a poem strives for precision of language, the essay strives for precision of thought, even argument. In a poem, you can build (or approximate) an argument by plopping two images next to each other. It persuades by pointing. Writing these essays felt like pulling apart a long piece of taffy — I found myself reiterating a lot of what I’ve already expressed in poems, so it almost became a project of stretching out each poetic line, breaking down each concept to its root. The process is about asking, pondering, searching — and letting language take part in the answering.
You have a knack for terrific book titles. How did you name your new collection?
Thank you! The essays encompass a lot of seemingly disparate themes and even tonal registers, so framing the overall collection was daunting. I’d been tossing around a couple of options, including “Cheaper Than Therapy,” which appears as an essay title, when Jay-Z made the choice for me. I was in Italy at a residency, grieving the recent loss of my aunt and watching the “Big Pimpin’” video over and over as I worked on an essay about it for the book. I’d left my heavily tabbed copy of “Decoded” at home in L.A., but was scrolling a PDF for details about the video shoot when I came across the line: “If the price is life, then you better get what you paid for.”
What’s the last book you recommended to a member of your family?
Kiese Laymon’s “Heavy,” to my mom; Blair LM Kelley’s “Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class,” to my dad; and “A Is for Activist,” to my 8-month-old cousin.
What do you plan to read next?
Phillip B. Williams’s “Ours” was just published, and I’ve been excited about it for years. Vinson Cunningham’s “Great Expectations” came out the same day as my book. I plan to make that my tour read.
You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?
June Jordan, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin — but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t get just as much fun and fulfillment from a night with Angel Nafis, Danez Smith and Saeed Jones.