Know Your (Grown Up) Mighty Writers: Ashley Parker
Grew up: “In Bethesda, Maryland. It’s your typical, leafy suburb right outside of Washington, DC, that has remarkably good restaurants—though once in a fit of hyperbole, I think I may have decreed it ‘the restaurant capital of the Northeast corridor, if not the world.’ It’s a model of city planning, at least that’s what I gathered the summer I interned at the Gaithersburg Gazette and sat in on my fair share of city planning meetings.”
Where I work now: New York Times, DC bureau.
Different writing things I do: “My full-time job is as a researcher/fact checker. But I write whatever I can for the Times—mainly culture-of-DC and political features. I’ve written for most sections of the paper (the Sunday Magazine, National, Style, Travel, Arts, and the now-defunct Escapes and City sections), and I freelance a bit, recently for the Huffington Post and Glamour.”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
“It helps if you can handle rejection.”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
My career history: “I worked for my high school paper, and college paper, the Daily Pennsylvanian, and along with my gig at the Cheesecake Factory, had journalism internships summers when I was in college—at the New York Sun, the Gaithersburg Gazette, LIFE magazine. And then, randomly, through luck and good timing, I landed my job at the New York Times.”
Kinds of books I read as a kid: “When I was in second grade, I made a bet with my parents that I wouldn’t watch TV for a year, and in return they’d pay me $365. Long way of saying: I read a lot, more or less anything—a lot of Nancy Drew (I actually dressed up as a Nancy Drew book one Halloween), and a lot of ‘The Great Brain’—a series set in Utah in the late 19th Century that is much better than it sounds.”
People who had a big effect on me as a young writer: “My parents. My dad was always writing goofy little poems or entertaining us on long car rides by making up stories involving a reoccurring cast of characters—Ghoulah, Ragna and Honkey Tonk, anyone? Both of my parents read to me for hours every night, long past the point at which it was socially acceptable.”
The kind of books I read now: “I recently got really into John Irving—’Until I Find You,’ ‘A Widow For One Year,’ ‘A Prayer For Owen Meany,’ ‘The Hotel New Hampshire’— so you could say I have a soft spot for books filled with bears and prostitutes. But I also like ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt, ‘Prague’ by Arthur Phillips, ‘You Don’t Love Me Yet’ by Jonathan Lethem, ‘And Then We Came To The End’ by Joshua Ferris—also, Joan Didion, generally.”
Best advice I can give: “Read and write as much as possible. And if you want to become a published writer, it helps if you can handle rejection.”
Ashley Parker is a University of Pennsylvania graduate (class of 2005). For a sample of Ashley’s writing, Mighty Writers recommends this piece on President Obama aide, Reggie Love.
