USM Alumna鈥檚 Novel Included on Best Fiction for Young Adults List
Thu, 01/28/2021 - 10:29am | By: Van Arnold
A fascination with zombies has helped University of 51逗奶 Mississippi (USM) alumna
and author Ash (Banks) Parsons land her most recent novel on the 2021 Best Fiction
for Young Adults list by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).
Her book, Girls Save the World in This One, is included among 85 titles selected from 124 official nominations, which were posted and discussed in on .
Parsons, a Huntsville, Ala., native, summarizes her book as follows: 鈥淔angirl June and her besties Imani and Siggy will let nothing stand in the way of a good time at ZombieCon 鈥� not the end of high school, not ex-BFF Blair, not overly-enthusiastic cosplayers, not even 鈥� wait a minute 鈥� the real actual zombie apocalypse itself!鈥�
鈥淚 was delighted and surprised to learn that my book was selected as a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults title,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge honor. I was also moved because I used to be a youth services librarian, and I know the dedication and passion they have for young adult literature.鈥�
Parsons earned her undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University and her master鈥檚 degree in library information science from USM. Since that time, she has been actively involved in child and youth advocacy programs. She taught English to middle- and high-school students in rural Alabama and watching some of her students face seemingly impossible problems helped inspire her first novel, Still Waters.
She has taught creative writing for Troy University鈥檚 ACCESS program and media studies at Auburn University. Parsons recently won the 2016 PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, a $5,000 award for an author of children鈥檚 or young-adult fiction to complete a book-length work in progress, for A Chemical Distance.
Dr. Teresa Welsh, director of USM鈥檚 School of Library and Information Science, has been closely following the distinguished alumna鈥檚 literary career and relished the opportunity to meet her a few years ago.
鈥淎sh returned to campus in Hattiesburg for the 2018 USM Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival, where she led a workshop on the creative use of archetypes in writing and where she also attended the SLIS alumni breakfast,鈥� said Welsh. 鈥淪he has a warm, engaging personality, and it was a delight to meet her in person and tell her of the great pride we feel in her accomplishments.鈥�
Parsons notes that her inspiration for Girls Save the World in this One sprang from her fascination with the zombie genre. In fact, she has appeared as one of the many roaming, stumbling zombies on the hit TV series 鈥淭he Walking Dead.鈥�
鈥淒uring that time, I went to Walker Stalker, the first Walking Dead fan convention
in Atlanta,鈥� said Parsons. 鈥淲hile at the convention, I realized that since people
were cosplaying as zombies, if there was an actual zombie apocalypse at a zombie fan
convention, how would you be able to tell until it was too late? The idea was hilarious
to me, and I kept thinking about it. Years later, I decided it was time to write a
horror-comedy set at a zombie fan convention.鈥�
Parsons followed the success of Still Waters with her second novel, Holding Onto You (previously published as The Falling Between Us), 鈥� a contemporary mystery and romance that examines what it might be like to be famous at a young age and all of the pressures that come with it.
Parsons鈥� fourth young adult novel, You鈥檙e So Dead, is set for release this summer. She describes the book as an Agatha Christie-inspired murder-comedy set at an island festival for influencers-only, except the influencers keep getting killed off.
Parsons, who currently resides in Auburn, Ala., calls her time as a USM graduate student 鈥渆ssential鈥� in helping shape her writing career.
鈥淲hile I always wrote stories, I didn鈥檛 specifically think about genre or publishing until I was a graduate student at USM,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was thanks to the Fay B. Kaigler Children鈥檚 Book Festival, which I attended as a student, that I began to investigate writing and publishing for young adults. So, you can see, there鈥檚 a direct line connecting the festival, the (USM) de Grummond Children鈥檚 Literature Collection, and my work today.鈥�
To see the 2021 Best Fiction for Young Adults List, visit: . To learn more about Ash Banks Parsons鈥� writing, visit: .