Jamie Parsley

Jamie Parsley
Born (1969-12-08) December 8, 1969 (age 56)
EducationVermont College of Fine Arts (MFA)
Nashotah House Seminary (MA)
OccupationsPoet, Episcopal priest
Writing career
Period1990s-present

Jamie Parsley (born December 8, 1969) is an American poet and Episcopal priest. He is the author of fifteen books of poems and an associate poet laureate for the state of North Dakota.

Biography

Born in Fargo, North Dakota and raised near Harwood, North Dakota, Parsley received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Vermont College at Norwich University. He studied at the School of Theology at Thornloe University in Sudbury, Ontario, St. Joseph’s College, Standish, Maine and received a Master's Degree from Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary, Nashotah, Wisconsin.

Parsley was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 2004, became the priest-in-charge of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church Fargo in 2008. Parsley began teaching Theology, Ethics, Philosophy, Literature and Writing at the University of Mary's Fargo campus in 2003. Parsley published his first book of poems, Paper Doves, Falling and Other Poems in 1992. Parsley’s book, Cloud, is a book-length poem on the bombing of Hiroshima. Parsley's book of collected haiku, no stars, no moon: new and collected haiku, was published in 2004.

Parsley was appointed an Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota by Poet Laureate Larry Woiwode in 2004.

Since 2021, Parsley has served as the poet-in-residence at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Reception

Parsley’s tenth book, Fargo, 1957, was published in 2010, and chronicled the stories of the victims and survivors of the tornado that struck Fargo, North Dakota on June 20, 1957 and killed two of his mother's cousins. A reviewer in the High Plains Reader writes that Parsley's shows a "willingness to present himself and his own obsession honestly—the process of discovering these people and what they have left behind."

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 Hertzel, Laurie (October 2, 2011). "BOOKMARK; Book documents Minnesota's Carnegie libraries". Star Tribune. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  2. ↑ "Parsley, Jamie - Read North Dakota". Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
  3. 1 2 "From our Priest/Staff of St. Stephen's « St. Stephen's Episcopal Church". St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Transitional deacon named associate poet laureate of North Dakota". Episcopal News Service. March 30, 2004. Retrieved October 8, 2013.[permanent dead link]
  5. ↑ "Priest and Poet to Teach at Concordia". Concordia College. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  6. ↑ "Jamie Parsley | West Fargo Area Education Foundation". Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  7. 1 2 Nygard, Dan. "Jamie Parsley's "Fargo, 1957: An Elegy"". High Plains Reader. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2013.