Em J Parsley is a speculative fiction novelist and poet living in rural Kentucky.
Em J (also sometimes known as Wylde) received their MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. He has previously taught writing at Eastern Kentucky University and Midway University, and is currently interested in combining his agricultural, ecological, and creative practices. Their work has appeared in print and online in Silk Road Review, ANMLY, The Rio Grande Review, Every Day Fiction, and various other places. He also writes a monthly column/writing prompt for Wild Roof Journal on Substack.
+ + +
Their chapbook, the anonym gospels, won the Apogee Poetry Chapbook Award and was a finalist for Wolfson Press Chapbook Award, the Frontier Poetry Chapbook Contest, and the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize.
His novella, You, From Below, is coming out with Split Lip Press in February 2025.
+ + +
Em J was also a 2024 artist-in-residence at Wormfarm Institute, where they spend their mornings working in the garden and their afternoons working on a novel-in-verse. They were a 2023 writing resident at Kenyon Review Summer Workshops.
Contact
em.parsley@gmail.com