A manner of being : writers on their mentors / edited by Annie Liontas and Jeff Parker.

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Contents; Introduction; Lineage I; Tobias Wolff on John L'Heureux; Douglas Unger on Raymond Carver, John Irving, and Richard Stern; George Saunders on Douglas Unger and Tobias Wolff; Adam Levin on George Saunders; Schoolhouse; Aimee Bender on Judith Grossman and Geoffrey Wolff; Mary Caponegro on John Hawkes; James Franco on School; Lee Montgomery on Five Mentors; Carmen Maria Machado on Kevin Brockmeier and Michelle Huneven; Leonid Kostyukov on Anatoly Kim; Scott Laughlin on Alberto de Lacerda; Davy Rothbart on Charles Baxter; Jedediah Berry on William Weaver. C. Dale Young on Donald JusticeMaya Lang on Ron DeMaio; Mecca Jamilah Sullivan on Amy; Peter Meinke on Robert "Bobo" Rudd and Mrs. Maureen Vanderbilt; Stefan Kiesbye on Irving Feldman; Michael Martone on John Barth; Outliers; Richard Poplak on Fabian Cancellara's Legs; Diane Cook on Ira Glass; Mary Gaitskill on the Old Guy; Kevin Canty on Harry Crews; Rodrigo Rey Rosa on Paul Bowles; Ken Babstock on Three Builders; Aleksandr Skidan on Boris Ostanin; Tony D'Souza on the Exquisite Lady; Byron Case on L.; Henry Rollins on Hubert Selby, Jr.; Sheila Heti on Susan Roxborough. Mikhail Iossel on Gilbert SorrentinoEdie Meidav on Peter Matthiessen; Megan Mayhew Bergman on Tammy White; Polina Barskova on the Teacher; Rosemary Sullivan on Leonora Carrington and P.K. Page; Lineage II; Padgett Powell on Donald Barthelme; Mike Spry on Padgett Powell; Sam Lipsyte on Gordon Lish; Noy Holland on Gordon Lish; Christine Schutt on Elizabeth Hardwick; Tough Love; Deb Olin Unferth on John Probes; Erica Dawson on Mary Jo Salter; Nick Flynn on Philip Levine; Roy Kesey on Robert Day; Sabina Murray on Valerie Martin; Rui Zink on Alberto Pimenta; Anya Groner on Beth Ann Fennelly. Dawn Raffel on her GrandmotherPam Houston on Martha Washington; No Mentor Here; Paisley Rekdal on No One; Christine Hume on Some Teachers; Tibor Fischer on a Mentor Missed; Tony Hoagland on Rejecting your Mentors; Interventions; Stephen Elliott on Surrounding Yourself with the People you Most Wish to Become; Josip Novakovich on Terrence Malick; Maaza Mengiste on Breyten Breytenbach; Alissa Nutting on Kate Bernheimer; Jon Paul Fiorentino on Robert Kroetsch; Nathan Deuel on William T. Vollmann; Peter Trachtenberg on James McCourt; George Singleton on Fred Chappell; Jay Parini on Gore Vidal. Frank X. Gaspar on Donald DruryLineage II; Tayari Jones on Ron Carlson; Ron Carlson on David Kranes; Arthur Flowers on John O. Killens; Annie Liontas on Arthur Flowers; Acknowledgments; About the Contributors; Back Cover.

What do the punk singer Henry Rollins, the Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa, the American authors Tobias Wolff, Tayari Jones, and George Saunders, the Canadian writer Sheila Heti, and the Russian poet Polina Barskova have in common? At some point they all studied the art of writing deeply with someone. The nearly seventy short essays in A Manner of Being, by some of the best contemporary writers from around the world, pay homage to mentors--the writers, teachers, nannies, and sages--who enlighten, push, encourage, and sometimes hurt, fail, and limit their protégés. There are mentors encountered in the schoolhouse and on farms, in NYC and in MFA programs; mentors who show up exactly when needed, offering comfort, a steadying hand, a commiseration, a dose of tough love. This collection is rich with anecdotes from the heartfelt to the salacious, gems of writing advice, and guidance for how to live the writing life in a world that all too often doesn't care whether you write or not. Each contribution is intimate and distinct--yet a common theme is that mentors model a manner of being."--Publisher's description.