Being: What Makes a Man

“Man up! Be a man!” How many times have you heard it? The personal essays and poems in the anthology What Makes a Man, edited by Jill McCabe Johnson, take a close look at the life experiences that (re)define what makes a man. From Marvin Bell sharing his experience as a soldier to Dinty Moore’s “Down in the Hole” to David Shields’ “Negotiating Against Myself,” the authors in What Makes a Man share the sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious truth about facing love, loss, fatherhood, fire, injury, war, and the ever-present challenge to “Be a man!”