Moving beyond the loss of both his father and brother, E.Ethelbert Miller tells the story of how love survived in his family. When Miller was about ten years old, his father told him how he considered leaving his mother. Years later, now a writer and a father, Miller looks back on the simple remark and how it shaped him. In Fathering Words, Miller explores his development as an African American writer, the responsibility of his chosen career, and his ambitions to raise the consciousness of Black people. Miller's poetry often relies on the voices of women. Here in Fathering Words, he has chosen to write his memoir in two voices. He places his sister's voice on the page next to his own. The result is a wonderful duet that tells two stories woven into one. Fathering Words is Miller's moving tribute and a powerful memoir. "Miller brings an accomplished poet's stunning language to this important memoir, and no one writes more eloquently about the lives — the triumphs and dilemmas — of black American men than he does." — Charles Johnson, author of Middle Passage E. Ethelbert Miller, a literary activist, was born in 1950 and grew-up in the South Bronx. A graduate of Howard University, he was one of the first students to major in African American Studies. Today he is the board chair of the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank located in Washington, D.C. Miller is also the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University, a position he has held since 1974. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including the edited anthology, Beyond the Frontier.