James Parker

James Parker is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Turned On, his 1998 biography of the punk-rock performer Henry Rollins, has been described as “breathlessly brilliant” (New Musical Express) and “a modern-day Pilgrim’s Progress” (Feed.com). He was previously a staff writer for the Boston Phoenix, where he won New England Newspapers and Press Association awards for his reporting on history and religious issues, and an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music criticism. In 2012, he was nominated for a National Magazine Award for his columns at The Atlantic. In 2017–18 he was the Institute of Liberal Arts journalism fellow at Boston College. Since 2011, Parker has been running the Black Seed Writers Group—a weekly writing workshop for homeless, transitional, and recently housed writers–and editing The Pilgrim, a literary magazine from the homeless community of downtown Boston.

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Dear James

In his weekly advice column, staff writer James Parker addresses readers’ existential worries—and in-the-moment worries, too.

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  2. Bob Dylan’s Carnival Act

    His identity was a performance. His writing was sleight of hand. He bamboozled his own audience.

    James Parker
    Illustration with black image of Bob Dylan in sunglasses striding down the strings of a white sketch of a guitar on red background
    Illustration by Liz Hart. Source: Getty.