Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer

The poet's journey begins in the heart. Here is a memoir from a poet that reminds us to pursue writing as much as love.

Moving beyond the loss of both his father and brother, E. Ethelbert Miller tells the story of how love survived in his family. When Miller was about ten years old, his father told him how he could have left his mother. Years later, now a writer and a father, Miller looks back on that simple remark and how it shaped him. In Fathering Words, Miller explores his development as an African American writer, the responsibility of his chosen career, and his ambitions to raise the consciousness of black people. Gradually, Miller comes to see that when his father told him he could have left his mother that he was attempting to raise his consciousness. In his own way, his father was warning Miller not to take things for granted, that one's own world could easily and quickly change. And in his quiet way that he loved him.

Miller's poetry often relies on the voices of women. Here in Fathering Words, Miller has chosen to write his memoir in two voices. He places his sister's voice on the page next to his own. The result is a wonderful duet that tells two stories woven together into one.

Fathering Words is Miller's moving tribute and a powerful memoir.

E. Ethelbert Miller is a poet and the author of five collections of poetry including Andromeda, Where are the Love Poems for Dictators?, and most recently Whispers, Secrets and Promises. He is also the editor of numerous anthologies including In Search of Color Everywhere. He has been the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University since 1974. He lives in Washington, D.C..