{"product_id":"diary-of-a-misfit-a-memoir-and-a-mystery-paperback","title":"Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCasey Parks\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart memoir, part sweeping journalistic saga: As Casey Parks follows the mystery of a stranger's past, she is forced to reckon with her own sexuality, her fraught Southern identity, her tortured yet loving relationship with her mother, and the complicated role of faith in her life.\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Casey Parks came out as a lesbian in college back in 2002, she assumed her life in the South was over. Her mother shunned her, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But then Parks's grandmother, a stern conservative who grew up picking cotton, pulled her aside and revealed a startling secret. \"I grew up across the street from a woman who lived as a man,\" and then implored Casey to find out what happened to him. \u003ci\u003eDiary of a Misfit\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of Parks's life-changing journey to unravel the mystery of Roy Hudgins, the small-town country singer from grandmother's youth, all the while confronting ghosts of her own. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e For ten years, Parks traveled back to rural Louisiana and knocked on strangers' doors, dug through nursing home records, and doggedly searched for Roy's own diaries, trying to uncover what Roy was like as a person--what he felt; what he thought; and how he grappled with his sense of otherness. With an enormous heart and an unstinting sense of vulnerability, Parks writes about finding oneself through someone else's story, and about forging connections across the gulfs that divide us.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eCASEY PARKS is a reporter for \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e who covers gender and family issues. She was previously a staff reporter at the \u003ci\u003eJackson \u003c\/i\u003e(Miss.)\u003ci\u003e Free Press\u003c\/i\u003e and spent a decade at \u003ci\u003eThe Oregonian\u003c\/i\u003e, where she wrote about race and LGBTQ+ issues and was a finalist for the Livingston Award. Her articles have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Oxford American, ESPN, USA Today\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e. 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 \u003ci\u003eDiary of a Misfit\u003c\/i\u003e. Parks lives in Portland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 368\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.8 x 8.2 x 5.3 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 26, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51764523270432,"sku":"9780593081105","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/127709c7b953cbb63e62f600790004dc.webp?v=1780250895","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/diary-of-a-misfit-a-memoir-and-a-mystery-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}