Who’s Yer Daddy? Gay Writers Celebrate Their Mentors and Forerunners

Description

Who's Yer Daddy? offers readers of gay male literature a keen and engaging journey. In this anthology, thirty-nine gay authors discuss individuals who have influenced them-- their inspirational "daddies." The essayists include fiction writers, poets, and performance artists, both honored masters of contemporary literature and those just beginning to blaze their own trails. They find their artistic ancestry among not only literary icons--Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, André Gide, Frank O'Hara, James Baldwin, Edmund White--but also a roster of figures whose creative territories are startlingly wide and vital, from Botticelli to Bette Midler to Captain Kirk. Some writers chronicle an entire tribal council of mentors; others describe a transformative encounter with a particular individual, including teachers and friends whose guidance or example cracked open their artistic selves. Perhaps most moving are the handful of writers who answered the question literally, writing intimately of their own fathers and their literary inheritance. This rich volume presents intriguing insights into the contemporary gay literary aesthetic. Winner of Lambda Literary Awards (Anthology) 2014 All Our Daddies and Then Some / Jim Elledge and David Groff -- Culture club in space: An anecdotal poetics / Benjamin S. Grossberg -- Walt Whitman: Glow on the Extremest / Verge Mark Doty -- Latin Moon Daddy / Charles RiceGonzález -- Making a Man Out of Me / Richard Blanco -- Under the Influence / Chip Livingston -- My Mothers Grave Is Yellow / Dale Peck -- Some Notes Thoughts Recollections Revisions and Corrections Regarding Becoming Being and Remaining a Gay Writer / Justin Chin -- My three dads / Charles Jensen -- Orpheus in Texas / Saeed Jones -- "It does not have to be yours" / Mark Bibbins -- A hidden life (oh Joy Williams) / Paul Lisicky -- Positively not: a talk about poetries and traditions / Brian Teare -- Romantic / Jeff Mann -- The Tallahatchie meets the Arve, or unexpected gay confluences in the '70s / Greg Hewett -- How I learned to drive: the education of a gay disabled writer / Kenny Fries -- How to skin a deer / Martin Hayatt -- The little girls with penises / Jim Elledge -- Oubloir / David McConnell -- Beloved Jotoranos / Rigoberto González -- Leaving Berlin / Ellery Washington -- Teenage Riot: notes on some books that guide me through a profoundly hormonal time / Alistair McCartney -- My radical dads / David Groff -- The mentor I never met: Janet Frame / Aaron Hamburger -- The case of the undone novel / Richard McCann -- Fugitives / James Allen Hall -- Some notes on influences or why I am not objective / Michael Klein -- I will tell this story the way I choose / Shaun Levin -- Thom Gunn: A memoir of reading / Randall Mann -- Queering an Italian American poetic legacy / Peter Covino -- Vanity Fairey Interviews writer Noël Alumit / Noël Alumit -- The four of them / Thomas Glave -- Jumpstart / Tim Miller -- Caliban / Dave King -- My first poetic mentor was a Welshman named Leslie / Timothy Liu -- The world is full of orphans / Raymond Luczak -- The seismology of love and letters / Brian Leung -- Botticelli Boy / Rick Barot -- Miss thing / Paul Bonin-Rodriguez -- Thirteen ways of looking at my father / K.M. Soehnlein.