Meet Frances Park

Frances Park’s haunted essays are part elegiac after party, part Coen brothers whispers. She travels from Seoul to Soul via bus tours to Amish country, the Bayou in Georgetown, a lost cabin in West Virginia, a cosmic dog, creepy neighbors, crazed roommates, old friends, lovers, and her ex (Hug Bug). But it’s her mother and lost-too-soon father that steal that show. Grab a vodka-laced Tab and dial up family life in the burbs via pop relics, TV ads, show tunes, dance moves, and chocolate.

          --Richard Peabody, editor of Gargoyle Magazine, author of Guinness on the Quay

 

The ferocious energy of Frances Park’s essays in That Lonely Spell, her lyrical prose, and her poignant subject matter—early loss of her father; isolation as the only Korean family in her Virginia suburb; a complex yet close bond with her mother; and a series of unfulfilling intimate relationships—captivated me from beginning to end. Park’s voice is urgent and entertaining. You won’t want to miss this collection.

          --R.L. Maizes, author of Other People’s Pets and We Love Anderson Cooper

 

Frances Park writes so elegantly about family and personal history, and how that history gradually becomes beautiful, monumental myth.

          --Ben Nussbaum, editor of Spirituality & Health

 

Through the twists and turns of memory, Ms. Park portrays a life lived without restrictions. The tang of childhood makes one wonder what one has missed – were we ever that wide-eyed and accepting? The exuberance of adolescence and young adulthood is told in a wry yet direct manner. Even her mistakes take on the sheen of the bittersweet – how we come to possess our own “lost paradises.”

 

A Korean heritage interwoven with an American-upbringing results in unique views on life and family. One cannot imagine a tighter or more loving family environment. The female perspective runs through these stories like an underground river, always present and often rising to the surface. It is a pleasure to read work that combines ethnicity and gender in ways that supersede the default versions of mainstream biographies. These coming-of-age stories – these life lessons – entertain even as they teach us something about ourselves. Highly recommended.

          --Robert Kostuck, author and editor-in-chief, Dovetales

 

In this rich and artful memoir-in-essays, Park’s loves and losses become the readers as well. It’s a special pleasure to become as happily immersed in the life of another person as I did reading That Lonely Spell.

          --Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

 

That Lonely Spell is a Tour de Force in memoir writing. Some hard truths spliced with pragmatic humor offer up a book that is informative, elegant, and extravagantly pleasurable to read. Frances Park has lived in many rooms. 

          --Susan Tepper, author of What Drives Men and The Crooked Heart, a Play

 

I can’t adequately put into words my praise for That Lonely Spell. Each story is magical, so powerful and beautifully recalled you’ll swear you were with her.

          --Rick Cooper, lyricist, author of For the Record

 

That Lonely Spell has cast its blissful spell on me like no other essay collection I’ve read before. Told in a voice that is uniquely hers, each story is heart-tugging and painfully honest – with heaps of humor throughout. Frances Park creates true connection with her readers, leading us, contrary to this book’s title, feeling not at all lonely, as if we’ve just made a new friend. I can’t wait to revisit her world and reread her stories from start to finish.

          --Scott Saalman, columnist (Dubois County Herald; Evansville Courier & Press), author of What Will you Write About When I’m Gone?, Nose Hairs Gone Wild, and Mr. Serious

 

While reading That Lonely Spell, I found myself wanting to highlight nearly every sentence. Frances Park’s stories are deep, blue and soulful – and I loved being lost in her sea of prose. 

          --Bill Adler, author of Outwitting Squirrels and Boys and Their Toys

 

That Lonely Spell is a luminous collection of stories that covers the beautiful and the brutal in Frances Park’s life with the kind of prose that sticks to your bones and stays with you long after you close the book. Emotionally, it packs a huge punch. Books rarely make me cry, but story after story hit me in the heart hard enough to make me tear up. If I had to choose a favorite, I could not. I loved them all.

          --Megan Wessell, blogger, A Bookish Affair

 

Frances Park writes in a style that can only be described as rapturous. Reading That Lonely Spell brought lots of tears and some laughs as well. She describes events throughout her life with a sense of realism that sometimes entertains, sometimes shocks, and always moves. Her father’s premature passing is almost always present, and her love for both parents is evident at all times. I loved every page.
          --Barbra Bailey Bradley, harpist and composer

 

“The beauty of life comes off like makeup” – to quote from Frances Park’s new book That Lonely Spell. I would say the beauty of an essay comes off like a short story. These are heartfelt essays that invite you in with warmth and honesty. Reading That Lonely Spell is like having a conversation with a friend you wish you had.

          --Carl Scharwath, writer, photographer and competitive runner

 

“Frances Park’s voice as a writer is resonate and authentic.” 

          --Sandra Tyler, editor-in-chief of The Woven Tale Press, author of Blue Glass and After Lydia