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Write My Name in Dust
When Parker Cullen, a disenchanted copywriter, squashes a fly with a copy of The Life of Pi, then walks away from a very lucrative job that he considers meaningless, he catapults himself through various unnerving memories as well as through other times and places meant to enlighten him, in their own ambiguous languages, to the true meaning of Life.
Told in six Acts and five Echoes, Write My Name in Dust sends young Parker Cullen backward and forward through time as he is forced to confront not only personal traumas from his past but also the truths of multiple realities, karma, the true nature of our material reality, and eternity.
The novel’s nontraditional formatting – intentional comma placement, extended pauses signaled by double-spacing, and a ragged right margin – mirrors Parker’s metaphysical journey. These choices invite the reader to experience his disorientation, reflection, and transformation not only through language, but through rhythm, breath, and visual form. The unjustified text resists the neatness of conventional narrative, echoing Parker’s own refusal to conform to a world that demands symmetry where none exists.
In this slender book, The Alchemist meets Cloud Atlas, with a hearty measure of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland thrown in. Silvis accomplishes this with both solemnity and humor. Write My Name in Dust is a unique and spiritually charged novel that explores the porous boundary between the seen and unseen, the remembered and the imagined. It is a meditation on grief, grace, and the quiet miracle of becoming. For readers drawn to stories that illuminate universal truths, Parker Cullen’s journey offers a haunting and redemptive experience.
Once again, Randall Silvis extends the boundaries of American fiction by dealing with a subject few writers will tackle, and he does so with panache. Write My Name in Dust just might be one of the most important books of fiction published in a very long time.
Told in six Acts and five Echoes, Write My Name in Dust sends young Parker Cullen backward and forward through time as he is forced to confront not only personal traumas from his past but also the truths of multiple realities, karma, the true nature of our material reality, and eternity.
The novel’s nontraditional formatting – intentional comma placement, extended pauses signaled by double-spacing, and a ragged right margin – mirrors Parker’s metaphysical journey. These choices invite the reader to experience his disorientation, reflection, and transformation not only through language, but through rhythm, breath, and visual form. The unjustified text resists the neatness of conventional narrative, echoing Parker’s own refusal to conform to a world that demands symmetry where none exists.
In this slender book, The Alchemist meets Cloud Atlas, with a hearty measure of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland thrown in. Silvis accomplishes this with both solemnity and humor. Write My Name in Dust is a unique and spiritually charged novel that explores the porous boundary between the seen and unseen, the remembered and the imagined. It is a meditation on grief, grace, and the quiet miracle of becoming. For readers drawn to stories that illuminate universal truths, Parker Cullen’s journey offers a haunting and redemptive experience.
Once again, Randall Silvis extends the boundaries of American fiction by dealing with a subject few writers will tackle, and he does so with panache. Write My Name in Dust just might be one of the most important books of fiction published in a very long time.
178 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2025
1 person is currently reading
About the author
Randall Silvis
48 books306 followersRandall Silvis is the internationally acclaimed author of over a dozen novels, one story
collection, and one book of narrative nonfiction. Also a prize-winning playwright, a
produced screenwriter, and a prolific essayist, he has been published and produced in
virtually every field and genre of creative writing. His numerous essays, articles, poems and short stories have appeared in the Discovery Channel magazines, The Writer, Prism International, Short Story International, Manoa, and numerous other online and print magazines. His work has been translated into 10 languages.
Silvis’s many literary awards include two writing fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts, the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize, a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Award, six fellowships for his fiction, drama, and screenwriting from the Pennsylvania Council On the Arts, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree awarded for “distinguished literary achievement.”
collection, and one book of narrative nonfiction. Also a prize-winning playwright, a
produced screenwriter, and a prolific essayist, he has been published and produced in
virtually every field and genre of creative writing. His numerous essays, articles, poems and short stories have appeared in the Discovery Channel magazines, The Writer, Prism International, Short Story International, Manoa, and numerous other online and print magazines. His work has been translated into 10 languages.
Silvis’s many literary awards include two writing fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts, the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize, a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Award, six fellowships for his fiction, drama, and screenwriting from the Pennsylvania Council On the Arts, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree awarded for “distinguished literary achievement.”
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September 9, 2025Write My Name in Dust takes the reader along on a metaphysical journey
with Parker Cullen, a young advertising copywriter, who has given up
on finding any great meaning in the universe and has resigned himself
to accept the daily drudgery of his life. He has stopped looking for
answers, but luckily, the answers are persistent in finding him.
A very original story – that reads at times like a script, a poem, and
an amped-up modern-day Alice in Wonderland tale. Parker meets up
with some wonderful (and often very funny) teachers along the way --
a guru mouse, a Jungian avatar, Dr. Carl Young, a couple of
homeless poets, a sassy diner waitress and many other surprising
guides. There are also scenes with Parker and his grandmother, his
younger self and his deceased brother that brought me to tears. By
far the most surprising and satisfying book I have read in many
years.
Buckle up- it is quite a ride.
with Parker Cullen, a young advertising copywriter, who has given up
on finding any great meaning in the universe and has resigned himself
to accept the daily drudgery of his life. He has stopped looking for
answers, but luckily, the answers are persistent in finding him.
A very original story – that reads at times like a script, a poem, and
an amped-up modern-day Alice in Wonderland tale. Parker meets up
with some wonderful (and often very funny) teachers along the way --
a guru mouse, a Jungian avatar, Dr. Carl Young, a couple of
homeless poets, a sassy diner waitress and many other surprising
guides. There are also scenes with Parker and his grandmother, his
younger self and his deceased brother that brought me to tears. By
far the most surprising and satisfying book I have read in many
years.
Buckle up- it is quite a ride.
Displaying 1 of 1 review