Annie Proulx * John Updike * Calvin Trillin * Caroline Leavitt * Dean Koontz * Zhu Xiao Di * Jonathan Kellerman * Ana Veciana-Suarez * Frederick Dillen * Sandra Benítez * Sylvia Watanabe * Mickey Pearlman * Mary Morris * Jane Bernstein * David Forsmark * Martha Coventry * Jesse Kellerman * Claudia O'Keefe * Rochelle Jewell Shapiro * Jane Praeger * Dawn Raffel

Father

The ties that bind a father to his family — and vice versa — have always been a potent source of artistic obsession and literary contemplation, from The Odyssey to King Lear to Death of a Salesman. Now some of today's most talented writers — award winners and innovative newcomers alike — come together in a powerful and exhilarating anthology, a dazzling collection of short stories and memoirs that captures the unique and far-reaching spectrum of emotions that only fathers and fatherhood can inspire.

Powerfully affirming her reputation as one of today's premier prose stylists, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx delivers the Faulknerian "Electric Arrows," a stark portrait of modernism's devastating effect on a rural family's patriarch. Through the subtle observations and vivid characterizations of "The Gun Shop," the inimitable John Updike quietly underscores the complex interplay of resentment and adoration attending every father-son relationship. In spare, staccato rhythms, Dawn Raffel renders an unforgettable image of a grown daughter and her aging father in "Somewhere Near Sea Level." And in an achingly beautiful memory piece, Ana Veciana-Suarez recalls her turbulent Miami childhood spent in the shadow of her papi, a strong-willed Caribbean emigrant.

These works, along with a range of other compelling selections, combine for an anthology of extraordinary power and uncommon scope. By turns troubling and comforting, bewildering and revelatory, Father delivers an unprecedentedly rich and eclectic take on this most classic of all literary themes.

The bestselling editor of "Mother" and "Forever Sisters" offers a powerhouse collection of fiction, essays, and memoirs about fatherhood, written by such prize-winning writers as Annie Proulx and John Updike.

Claudia O'Keefe is the editor of the acclaimed anthologies Mother and Forever Sisters, both available from Pocket Books. A former correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times, she is the author of the novel Black Snow Days, and her short stories have appeared in several anthologies and magazines. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives on a restored historic farm near Lexington, Virginia.

Contents

Introduction/Claudia O'Keefe

Comrades/Memoir/Jane Praeger

Being a Father/Personal Essay/Winston Groom

Snapshots/Memoir/Claudia O'Keefe

Messages from My Father: An Excerpt/Memoir/Calvin Trillin

The Golden Darters/Fiction/Elizabeth Winthrop

Daddy's Girl: A Story/Fiction/Jonathan Kellerman

Twilight of the Dawn/Fiction/Dean Koontz

Mi Papi/Memoir/Ana Veciana-Suarez

The Last Vacation/Fiction/Caroline Leavitt

One Long Celebration/Memoir/Martha Coventry

My Real Father/Memoir/Jane Bernstein

A Book of Names/Personal Essay/Sylvia Watanabe

Heavy When It's Empty/Personal Essay/Janet Ruth Falon

Matthew 10, 34-39/An Episcopal Homily/Frederick G. Dillen

The Geography of Love/Fiction/Mary Morris

"Mickey Lou, I Was Just Wondering..."/Memoir/Mickey Pearlman

The Wild Russian/Fictional Memoir/Rochelle Jewell Shapiro

Somewhere near Sea Level/Fiction/Dawn Raffel

On Being Daddy's Son and Daughter/Memoir/Florence Cawthorne Ladd

Bucking Tradition; or, Father-Son Relationships in Eastern Nevada/Fiction/Jesse Kellerman

This Is America, Mom: A Personal Essay/Zhu Xiao Di

César Burgos: El Pescador/Novel Excerpt/Sandra Benítez

The Fundamental Things Apply/Memoir/David Forsmark

Electric Arrows/Fiction/E. Annie Proulx

The Gun Shop/Fiction/John Updike