Morgan Parker

Morgan Parker (born December 19, 1987) is an American poet, novelist, and editor. She is the author of poetry collections Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night (Switchback Books, 2015), There are More Beautiful Things than Beyoncé (Tin House Books, 2017), and Magical Negro (Tin House Books, 2019) which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also author of the young adult novel, Who Put This Song On (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2019).

Parker completed her Bachelors in Anthropology and Creative Writing at Columbia University and her MFA in poetry at New York University.

Parker previously served as editor at Amazon Publishing's Little A and Day One. She has taught creative writing at Columbia University, co-curates the Poets With Attitude (PWA) reading series with Tommy Pico, is the creator and host of Reparations, Live! at the Ace Hotel in New York, and is a member of The Other Black Girl Collective with poet and performer Angel Nafis.

Her poetry has been featured in publications including The Awl, Poetry Foundation, Tin House, and others. Her work was also included in Why I Am Not A Painter (Argos Books), The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Black Girl Magic: The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2 and Best American Poetry 2016.

In December 2015, she was Poetry Foundation's featured blogger.

Parker was born and raised in Southern California before attending school in New York. She moved back to Southern California in 2017.

• 2012 Cave Canem Fellowship
• 2013 Gatewood Prize
• 2016 Pushcart Prize
• 2017 National Endowment of the Arts Literature Fellowship
• 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award (Poetry) for Magical Negro

This is a partial list of Parker's publications.

• Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night, Switchback Books, 2015
• There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, Tin House Books, 2017
• Magical Negro, Tin House Books, 2019
• Who Put This Song On?, Delacorte Press, 2019

Cover Art

Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night features an adaptation of work by Sam Vernon. The first U.S. edition of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé features commissioned artwork by Mickalene Thomas. The second edition features the photo Portrait of a Woman Fallen from Grace, 1987 by Carrie Mae Weems. Carrie Mae Weems