The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 039333936X ISBN 13: 9780393339369

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011

Synopsis

What is death and how does it touch upon life? Twenty writers look for answers.

Birth is not inevitable. Life certainly isn't. The sole inevitability of existence, the only sure consequence of being alive, is death. In these eloquent and surprising essays, twenty writers face this fact, among them Geoff Dyer, who describes the ghost bikes memorializing those who die in biking accidents; Jonathan Safran Foer, proposing a new way of punctuating dialogue in the face of a family history of heart attacks and decimation by the Holocaust; Mark Doty, whose reflections on the art-porn movie Bijou lead to a meditation on the intersection of sex and death epitomized by the AIDS epidemic; and Joyce Carol Oates, who writes about the loss of her husband and faces her own mortality. Other contributors include Annie Dillard, Diane Ackerman, Peter Straub, and Brenda Hillman.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Either because of the seriousness of the subject, or because of the acumen of the editors, these essays make for a singularly powerful, substantial, and thoughtful collection. A celebration of good writing, under the auspices of the grim reaper. -- Phillip Lopate

About the Author

Bradford Morrow's novels include The Diviner’s Tale, Giovanni's Gift, and Trinity Fields, and co-edited with David Shields The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death. The recipient of numerous awards, he founded and edits the literary journal Conjunctions and is a professor of literature at Bard College. He lives in New York City.

David Shields, the author of Reality Hunger, is the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington.

Bradford Morrow's novels include The Diviner’s Tale, Giovanni's Gift, and Trinity Fields, and co-edited with David Shields The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death. The recipient of numerous awards, he founded and edits the literary journal Conjunctions and is a professor of literature at Bard College. He lives in New York City.

David Shields, the author of Reality Hunger, is the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 039333936X
• ISBN 13: 9780393339369
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 334
• Editor: Shields David, Morrow Bradford