Andrew Parkin was educated in Birmingham, Cambridge and Bristol. He divides his time between Paris and Vancouver.

Set in Vancouver, France, the UK, Hong Kong and Rome, Andrew Parkin's 24th book, Private Dancers or Responsible Women, a Novel of Intrigue (Strategic £13.74), is a rare B.C. novel for two reasons: it unabashedly includes sex and it shows that, hey, things can turn out well! Laced with food, drink, sex, costumes, and exotic interiors, it's a tale of eros and espionage as a Paris-based journalist named Paul Wills tries to track down a mystery woman he encountered in Hong Kong and Europe, the beautiful Kalitza. Parkin, who was a Russian linguist in Berlin during the Cold War, describes Kalitza (aka Kim, aka Alissa) as "a compulsively bizarre-like Jung's Anima who seems to arise from the male unconscious, yet clearly has independent existence." The  novel involves counter-terrorism and identity puzzles that are resolved in a wedding scene finale. The overriding themes are freedom and metamorphosis. "It's about love and death," he says, "the only topics worth discussing, according to W.B. Yeats!" 978-1-62857-431-9

Andrew Parkin has dual English and Canadian citizenship. He taught for many years at the University of British Columbia, becoming a Full Professor. He then taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as Chair Professor of English (1990-2001) and a Fellow of Shaw College. Professor Arthur K.C. Li (Hon. Fellow of Sidney Sussex) as Vice-Chancellor of CUHK appointed Andrew as Orator Universitatis.

Now retired, he is Professor Emeritus of CUHK and Honorary Senior Tutor of Shaw College. Founding Editor of The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, he was awarded the title of Most Distinguished Retiring Editor of a Learned Journal by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals in Washington, D.C. An Honorary Life Member of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies and Adviser to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, he belongs also to the International Association of University Professors of English. A member of the Canadian Writers' Union, he is also adviser to the Canadian Chinese Writers' Association.

Parkin publishes mostly scholarly books, mainly on drama, as well as original poetry, and short fiction. His published poetry may be found in his Dancers in a Web (Turnstone,1987; rpt. 1990), Yokohama Days, Kyoto Nights (Ekstasis, 1992, sold out), Hong Kong Poems (Ronsdale, 1997; rpt. 1999), The Rendez-Vous (Peter Lang, 2003), Shaw Sights and Sounds (a suite of 12 poems accompanying paintings by Chan Hang, Shaw College, 2006). This book is available only from Shaw College in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

A recent book is Star of a Hundred Years, a Scenariode for Sir Run Run Shaw (A.R.A.W. LII Publications, Ajmer, India, 2009). He has also published two artists' books with Jacqueline Ricard at la cour pavée in Paris. Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge and with a doctorate from the Drama Department at Bristol University, he now lives in Paris but visits many different countries to give lectures and poetry readings. He visits Canada every year to be with family and friends in B.C. In October 2008, he succeeded Mme. Françoise Pépin LeHalleur as Chairman of the Paris Decorative and Fine Arts Society.

Another Rendez-Vous: Poetry and Prose from the Cultural Crossroads (Peter Lang, 2011 ISBN 978-3-631-62020-5) was followed by his first novel. Private Dancers or Responsible Women (Houston, Texas: SBPRA, 2014. ISBN 978-1-62857-431-9).

Sir Run Run Shaw, the media tycoon who helped bring Chinese martial arts films to an international audience, died in his home in Hong Kong on January 3, 2014. When he learned Sir Run Run Shaw was going to be 100 years old, Andrew Parkin was visiting Shaw College in Hong Kong, so he began an ode, "Star of a Hundred Years," about film as an art, and China--in the form of a film script. It was published with a translation into Hindi by the Indian poet, Anuraag, and reprinted by Ekstasis Editions of Victoria, then translated into Chinese.

[BCBW 2014]