This is the story of a man who left instructions that the word “WRITER”—in capital letters—should be carved into the centre of his tombstone.  

Philip F Deaver’s writing won America’s Flannery O’Connor and O. Henry awards. For 20 years, he was the writer-in-residence and creative writing professor at Florida’s prestigious Rollins College, until frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) robbed him of his ability to write or speak. 

This book’s subtitle, acknowledging Philip Deaver as a “minor” American writer, is not pejorative. Although he was not a household name, and his list of published works was not long, his written words were invariably of a high standard. And coupled with his outstanding work was the recognition by all who knew him that, as a human being of intelligence, compassion, and wit, there was nothing minor about him. 
 

* Philip Deaver’s stories were “full of blurred time and half-lived dreams. Written in vivid, spare prose, the best of these stories linger, sad and profound, like songs you sing to yourself” –The New York Times Book Review. 

* Philip Deaver’s stories were “[p]ermeated with finely crafted writing,” making for “a wise, quietly provocative statement about commonplace tragedy and the ironies and fragility of relationships” –Publishers Weekly. 

* Philip Deaver was “a writer unparalleled in his examination of the lost souls longing to be found. In prose that is quietly lyric, and sharp with truth, his stories are kinetic with heartbreak and magic. His work is a triumph, and I would follow it anywhere” –Laura Van Den Berg, author of Find Me, The Isle of Youth, and other works.