In his new book, "Why Bad Things Happen to Good Parrots," Arik Bjorn is determined to dig his way to the center of the theological mountain--even if all he has is a trusty garden trowel: "I have always wanted to aim my keyboard directly at the Creator and ask several pointed questions not about how to live, but about why we are alive." In the title essay, "Why Bad Things Happen to Good Parrots," Bjorn presents a heartfelt reflection 20 years in the making on Theodicy, or the Problem of Evil, "under the collective shadow of Aslan, Frodo and Freddy Krueger." In "Magic Chickens, Lemon Seeds & a Universe Sans Unicorns," he wonders why the Creator presented us with this Universe, so absent in miraculous lemon trees, when human beings seem so good at inventing more interesting ones.
With "The Science Fair at the Edge of the Universe," Bjorn contemplates Creation prequels, such as a divine spicy midnight snack that may have led to the Big Bang. In the concluding short story, "Vonnegut Lives," the author makes up for the fact that writer Kurt Vonnegut left our Little Blue Planet without appropriate ballyhoo.
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Bjorn has published 11 books. His most recent title, BRONX NIGHTS is "an epic, Autistic, Long COVID, Big Apple memoir." Amidst Godzilla on the George Washington Bridge and all the talking skyscrapers, the author searches desperately for a cure for Long COVID and heartbreak.
Bjorn's most popular book is UBER NIGHTS, a memoir about his late-night rideshare adventures in the Deep South. In South Carolina, you never know if your next passenger will be a naked lady with a toothbrush, a banana spider, or a punch-drunk redneck.
Before that, he published THIS IS NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK: AND YOU CAN TOO!, is a Jesus take the wheel (of cheese) health recovery journey memoir. If you're going to lose 85 pounds, might as well write about it.
Arik Bjorn is holed up in New York in the aftermath of BRONX NIGHTS. He is working on a children's story, FOR A TIME.
