Returning for a FOURTH year to Inks and Insights!

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Kevin Sparrow

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Kevin Sparrow is a Chicago-based writer, performer, and editor. His work as a writer has been published in Pioneertown., Chicago IRL, LIES/ISLE, In Our Words blog, and Harrington Gay Men's' Literary Quarterly, and he has worked as a freelance editor for 8+ years.

Kevin graduated with a MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in May 2014. He is also the recipient of the 2014 MFAW Teaching Fellowship from SAIC. He is a co-coordinator for the monthly home-salon series HI typ/O.

Ink & Insights is proud to welcome Kevin back for a fourth year as a contest judge.

Mr. Sparrow's comments regarding The Passionate Jihadist

The flow of the plot is very direct and has a lot of activity to involve the reader. Yushua's journey of self-discovery is compelling, and he comes up against a great deal of adversity that pushes him toward making choices that the reader can understand will affect him for the rest of his life.

In some ways, this fits for a young adult narrative, having a young character have to react to the authoritative figures in their life, which I think helps broaden the readership of this novel as it can appeal to younger and older adult readers. The way that Yushua is bullied is a universal in-road for a lot of readers, but how the specificity of that bullying ties into wider cultural values is a really captivating part of the narrative.