Mark Phillips is author of the memoir My Father’s Cabin (Lyons Press, 2004).  My Father’s Cabin was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and Joyce Carol Oates had this to say about it: “I don’t believe I have ever read so relentlessly honest, unsentimental and unsparing an account of working-class life.  My Father’s Cabin is a courageous account of American life that rings painfully true yet is, in its way, strongly affirming."  A collection of his essays, Love and Hate in the Heartland, was published by SkyHorse in 2018.  His creative non-fiction has been cited in Best American Essays and has been published in Commonweal, New York Times Magazine, The Sun, Notre Dame Magazine, Salon, and in many other journals.  Mark lives in western New York State, on the land which was the subject of his first book.

Below are links to Mark’s recent pieces for Notre Dame Magazine: “Speak, Water” and “Songs” (which was cited in Best Essays).

https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/speak-water/
https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/songs/

What’s Next? Mark has completed a draft of his first full-length novel, Missing Mountain, which is available for review and acquisition. A brief description:

Missing Mountain is a literary novel set in the contemporary United States which evokes the equally tranquil and tormented civilian life of Billy Wilson, who was a member of Charlie Company during the U.S. Army massacre at My Lai in Vietnam. 

Billy Wilson has never spoken to anyone about the massacre.  It is unclear whether he participated in the murdering or simply stood by, though at one point in his narration he states that when “cowardliness” allows the death of someone else, the failure to act is worse than killing in anger.  As he approaches the end of his life, his adult daughter Darlene convinces him to write his story for her and her sister Maggie.  In it, he confesses elliptically what he has never before said.  After his death, sentimental Darlene and jaded Maggie read his memoir together, commenting as they finish each chapter, teasing and arguing with each other, recalling their childhood, relating their father’s memories to their lives.  They eventually realize what Billy is confessing.  In different and surprising ways, they come to terms—partially—with the horror that their father has revealed.

Below are jackets from Mark’s first two books.