J.R. Parks

Jason (J. R.) Parks is the author of the children's fantasy novel The Wondercurrent. Along with writing fiction, Jason spends his time to teaching English at a liberal arts university in the Midwest and going on adventures (real life and imaginary ones) with his wife, Kendra, and their four creative, energetic, brilliant children. His earliest experiences with writing involved a co-authoring a children's book in his elementary school art class called "Flying Freddy" (a story about a boy who jumped off of his roof after watching a cartoon character do the same) and a small collection of poems he wrote in the fifth grade, mostly about flowers. He has also published multiple non-fiction peer-reviewed essays on teaching, multilingual literature, and early twentieth-century American and British literary magazines. In high school, he dabbled in screenwriting and filmmaking before turning his attention to literary analysis and criticism in college and graduate school. After becoming a father, and spending nearly a decade reading wonderful stories to his four children, he discovered his passion for whimsical and fantastic stories.