Bigger Than Life

Dinah Lenney's essays and reviews have appeared the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Ploughshares, Agni, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere. She received a Special Mention for her work in the Water-Stone Review and the 2010 Pushcart Prize anthology. Lenney has a BA from Yale University and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars, where she serves as a member of the core faculty. She also teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, as well as in the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California. A working actor in theatre, film, and television, Lenney co-authored Acting for Young Actors and has guest-starred on numerous television shows. You can visit her websites at www.dinahlenney.com  and  http://college.usc.edu/thegamut/author/dinahlenney/

• Acknowledgments1. Prologue: Eliza Wants to Know2. The Contents of the File3. The Last Visit4. Missing5. Just Business6. Still Missing7. Driving Lessons8. Waiting9. My Old Man10. The House with the Gate11. I Remember12. Albert and Rose13. Acting14. Eulogies15. Christmas with Dogs16. Looking for Crumbs17. The Drama of the Not Particularly Gifted Child18. October, 199819. Mementos20. Messages Received21. Nelson and Leah22. Coming and Going23. Mythology24. Two Fathers25. My Father under My Fingernails26. Resentment27. Conjecture28. Uncles29. Recovery30. Keeping in Touch31. Family Gifts32. After Life33. A Pretty Good Day34. Coda

“In one sense, [Lenney’s] book can be seen as therapy, a way of purging a decade’s worth of inner turmoil. But the story also explores a broader issue, the way the death of one man can affect the lives of many people. . . . Not a typical `survivor's autobiography,’ but a deeply affecting one.”—Booklist|“Before his murder, Dinah Lenney’s father was Bigger than Life but looms larger in death.”—Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair