Overview
A satirical campus novel, Dumb-Show shrewdly confronts the cultural politics of masculinity through a narrative that twists the structure of Henry IV. A controversial Canadian professor of political science at a Toronto university rises to power when his political views divide the student body. Two siblings, one a student at the university, develop isolated personal relationships with the professor, and find themselves spiralling to infamy alongside him. Parker's second novel shadows the rise and fall of a corrupt king, observes a young and lazy boy's attempt to make a name for himself, and, tearing a hole in the hyper-masculine power narrative, interrogates a woman's internal search to power. Expanding from the brutal introspection first seen in Parker's Set-Point, Dumb-Show takes brilliant aim at personal power relations, leaving no player unscathed.
Fawn Parker
Fawn is the author of Set-Point (ARP Books, 2019). Her short story, FEED MACHINE, was long-listed for the 2020 McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. She is co-founder of BAD NUDES Magazine, BAD BOOKS Press, and is president of The Parker Agency.
A current MA candidate at the University of Toronto, she is the recipient of the Adam Penn Gilders Award for Fiction (2019) and Concordia University's Irving Layton Award for Fiction (2017). Her short fiction and poetry has been widely published including, EVENT Magazine, The Puritan, The Void Magazine.
She teaches the course CREATING AN ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE at the University of Toronto and INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING at the University of New Brunswick College of Extended Learning.
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