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

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9780299289409: Who’s Yer Daddy?: Gay Writers Celebrate Their Mentors and Forerunners

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0299289400 ISBN 13: 9780299289409

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012

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, Andr� 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, LGBT Nonfiction Anthology, Lambda Literary Awards

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About the Author:

Jim Elledge is professor of English at Kennesaw State University and author of A History of My Tattoo: A Poem; The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day: A Novel; and Various Envies: Poems. David Groff, an independent writer and poet, is author of Theory of Devolution and coeditor of Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS and Whitman’s Men: Walt Whitman’s Calamus Poems Celebrated by Contemporary Photographers.

Review:

“A diverse and colorful anthology. This is the first major work to focus on accomplished writers, on the specific topic of their creative influences.”—Jerry Rosco, author of Glenway Wescott Personally

“These vibrant essays draw the reader in, illuminating a rich, intriguing, and previously unexplored subject.”—Will Fellows, author of Farm Boys and editor of Gay Bar

“A wonderful anthology about literary mentors to a host of interesting gay male writers in the past few decades. An original aspect of this book is the diversity it represents.”—Philip Gambone, author of Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans

“Betsy Donovan’s delightful jacket design for Who’s Yer Daddy: Gay Writers Celebrate their Mentors and Forerunners juxtaposes vintage masculine archetypes, hot-pink pride, and sassy slang in a way that perfectly conveys the smart, earnest, and utterly engaging contents of one of the best gay collections to be published in years.”—Passport Magazine

“Gay bibliophiles and aspiring writers, especially those interested in the creative process, will enjoy this engaging collection.”—Library Journal

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