Bingo, Bango, Boingo

by Alan Michael Parker

Award-winning author Alan Michael Parker displays his love for playful narrative and breaking all the rules in Bingo Bango Boingo, a collection of flash fiction told through Bingo cards

Flip the page. Choose your game. Is it “Community Garden Bingo”? “High School Reunion Bingo”? “Don’t Hate Your Daddy Bingo”? Or are you finally ready for “Change Your Life Bingo”?
Featuring 40 Bingo cards, interspersed with flash fiction and an opportunity to try the Bingo game yourself, this is a wholly original collection. Delightful, unexpected, and tongue in cheek—they’re stories, they’re Bingo cards, they’re wild, you’ll like them.

Genres: Short Stories

140 pages, Hardcover

Published February 25, 2025

About the author

Alan Michael Parker is the author of eight books of poems, four novels, and editor of five reference works on poetry. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in journals. Parker teaches at Davidson College, where he is Douglas C. Houchens Professor of English, and in the University of Tampa low-residency M.F.A. program. His awards include three Pushcart Prizes, the 2013 and 2014 Randall Jarrell Award, the North Carolina Book Award, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Reviews

[Jane Wageman]

Intrigued by the bingo form of these flash pieces, especially some of the unexpected choices Parker makes: repetition of certain squares, quotations, different parts of speech, visual elements (sketches in some of the spaces, some of which extend beyond a square into another), the bolded middle square. At its best, the pieces create a strong impression of scene/situation through these fragments, and the form encourages a kind of drifting through and rereading. However, the gaps left me wanting in the end, and I wasn't sure how to connect the content meaningfully with the form, since the element of chance/randomness inherent in bingo didn't really come through in most of my readings. My favorites were the ones where I thought of them less as bingo boards, and more as items organized in space.

Favorites: "At the Cubs Game, Stella and Bella Speak Their Private Tongue," "Allison's Library Adventure," "Dr. Ozan Builds a Violin," "Lilly's Bird Bingo"

[Grace Stafford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as an eARC through Edelweiss, and what a wonderful read! Who knew so much emotion and meaning could be condensed into a Bingo board.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fun!

[Leigh R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving yet fun. Loved it.