Fathering in all its guises is in the process of transformation, as fathers are both more involved with their families than before, but also still largely considered inferior to mothers in most ways. The essays in this collection explore the underexamined and contested category “father” from an intersectional feminist perspective. Contributors ask: What is a father? What does fathering look like? Several themes emerge in the collection, and one of them is the possibility found in transgression. If we look outside of the mainstream, to people bucking the status quo, we will often have a better chance of finding models of feminist fathering that should be held up and emulated. From the perspective of single fathers, queer fathers, people of color and all those affected by fathering, by way of personal explorations and popular culture and literary examinations, this collection explores the radical possibility of feminist fathering.

Nicole Willey is Professor of English at Kent State University Tuscarawas, where she teaches literatures and writing and serves as the Faculty Mentoring Program Coordinator for her campus. She authored Creating a New Ideal of Masculinity for American Men: The Achievement of Sentimental Women Writers in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, and co-edited the collection Motherhood Memoirs: Mothers Creating/Writing Lives. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two sons.

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Dan Friedman studied music at York University, and got interested in feminism while learning about cultural theory from Ioan Davies in grad school. He lives in Toronto with his partner and four mostly delightful children, splitting his remaining time (such as it is) between a web consulting business, singing folk music, and Tai Chi.

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