For one week only, this blog is now opened and feature new posts daily. Thanks for being here.
Hello, I’m David Press, and this is my website. I write fiction, comics, and personal essays. Over the winter I finished the fourth rewrite of my novel, The Human Library, and started a new job as an academic advisor at Indiana University-Bloomington.
I’ve been reading Brian Gresko’s book When I First Held You, which is a collection of essays by novelists about being writers and fathers. Folks like Dennis Lehane, Benjamin Percy, and Rick Moody contributed to it. In one interview at Literary Hub, Gresko interviews Polly Rosenwaike on juggling the duel identity of being a creative writer and a parent.
And in part I think many men, even self-aware enlightened men who read, still struggle to publicly embrace the role of fatherhood, or see it as something worthy of writing about, because society has taught them that’s not what men do or how they behave; it’s too sentimental. When I put together my anthology, I imagined that there were other men out there like me who would jump to read thoughtful, sensitive essays on the subject, but for the most part I hear from women (when I hear from anyone), and when the book launched it was mostly women supporting it, for which I was grateful though also surprised.
Gresko makes an interesting point that far too many literary authors don’t talk about being fathers, so I thought that for a week I would talk a little bit more about my literary autobiography, being a father, and how I manage to stay productive with so much going on in my life.
So, here goes. Thanks for being here. For a week, I’ll be here, and on Twitter and Instagram, so feel free to say hey over there if you want, or subscribe to my newsletter, that will continue weekly once I go back into my Writing Den for the rest of spring.
David Press 