Literary Hub » fathers and sons

Ilya Kaminsky on Discovering Poetry as a Deaf Child in Ukraine

Ilya Kaminsky on Discovering Poetry as a Deaf Child in Ukraine

“The language of poetry speaks to all our senses... It can speak, privately, to all of us. It is visceral.”

By Ilya Kaminsky | August 20, 2025

Inside James Baldwin’s Fraught Relationship With His Stepfather

Inside James Baldwin’s Fraught Relationship With His Stepfather

Douglas Field Considers the Paternal Bond of an American Literary Icon in Relation to His Own

By Douglas Field | November 20, 2024

The Price of “Progress.” On Development, Displacement and Dictatorship in the Amazon

The Price of “Progress.” On Development, Displacement and Dictatorship in the Amazon

José Henrique Bortoluci Explores Familial and Collective Memory of Authoritarian Rule in Brazil

By José Henrique Bortoluci | October 1, 2024

“New Words for the Truth of Still Being Alive.” Poetry by Herbert Gold and His Son, Ari

“New Words for the Truth of Still Being Alive.” Poetry by Herbert Gold and His Son, Ari

From the Collection “Father Verses Sons”

By Herbert Gold and Ari Gold | March 8, 2024

Amitava Kumar on Finding Solace in the Words of Others

Amitava Kumar on Finding Solace in the Words of Others

“I was still reporting to my father, the things I had read and all that I had remembered.”

By Amitava Kumar | February 27, 2024

A Room Without a View: How to Create Space (and Time) for Creativity (on the Toilet)

A Room Without a View: How to Create Space (and Time) for Creativity (on the Toilet)

Daniel Wallace on His Father’s Writing Space

By Daniel Wallace | May 26, 2023

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

More Than Just Power and Oppression: Six Books About Patriarchs

By Taymour Soomro | July 18, 2022

On Reading My Memoir to My Father

By Séamas O'Reilly | June 7, 2022

My Father Is a Civil Rights Hero. Growing Up with Him Was Complicated.

By David Dennis Jr. | May 19, 2022

Searching for the Elusive Sound of Silence in the Olympic Peninsula’s Hoh Rain Forest

Searching for the Elusive Sound of Silence in the Olympic Peninsula’s Hoh Rain Forest

Phillip Hurst on the Quest for Inner Peace in the Wake of His Father’s Conservative Ideology

By Phillip Hurst | October 14, 2021

Has the Parent Plot Ousted the Marriage Plot in Contemporary Fiction?

Has the Parent Plot Ousted the Marriage Plot in Contemporary Fiction?

Peter Ho Davies Reflects on the New Coming-of-Age Moment

By Peter Ho Davies | January 5, 2021

A Young V.S. Naipaul Writes to His Dad About Wanting to Fit in at School

A Young V.S. Naipaul Writes to His Dad About Wanting to Fit in at School

It Can Be Hard to Find Your People at Oxford

By V.S. Naipaul | November 23, 2020

How Dead Letters Brought My Family to Life

How Dead Letters Brought My Family to Life

Jessica Pearce Rotondi on the Family Saga of Her Missing Uncle

By Jessica Pearce Rotondi | April 21, 2020

What Fathers Leave Behind—Or Don't

What Fathers Leave Behind—Or Don't

P. Carl on the Lies a Family Tells Itself

By P. Carl | February 12, 2020

On Coming of Age in a Discount Supermarket

On Coming of Age in a Discount Supermarket

Michael Jaime-Becerra Considers the Important Time He Spent in a Viva Mart

By Michael Jaime-Becerra | October 11, 2019

When Stephen King is Your Father, the World is Full of Monsters

When Stephen King is Your Father, the World is Full of Monsters

Joe Hill on Standing in the Shadow (and Light) of His Famous Dad

By Joe Hill | October 10, 2019

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