Fathers (book)

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Fathers: A Literary Anthology is a 2011 collection of 49 personal essays and poems about fathers by well-known American, British, and Canadian writers. Contributors include Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Bruce Chatwin, Winston Churchill, Seamus Heaney, Doris Lessing, and Philip Roth. It was published in Vancouver by Patremoir Press.

Editor Andre Gerard introduces the idea of patremoir, a newer form of writing that faces the topic of fathers directly. He traces its roots to Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son, suggesting that such works helped people speak more openly about their fathers.

The book is more than a simple anthology. Through his introductions and author biographies, Gerard builds a larger story about how we shape the world and ourselves through the stories we tell about our fathers. He becomes part of the journey, like a modern Telemachus, exploring many father stories and eventually sharing his own. The collection explores how our memories of fathers are tied to who we are and what we’ve made of them.