We’re thrilled to reveal the cover for Lucas Mann‘s forthcoming memoir Attachments: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances.
Here’s a bit about the book from Mann, who is also the author of Captive Audience and Lord Fear:
I see Attachments as a way of thinking through and pulling apart the enormity of parenthood, and all the contradictions within that experience—these performances of self, the different versions of your life and personality that are present when trying to care for a young child. Through disparate forms and subjects (both personal and all the literary, artistic and cultural references that permeate my consciousness when parenting), my own perspective shifts, but the throughline, the constant, is my daughter. I love this cover because it captures that relationship: the outlines of all these different selves anchored by the certainty of this image of the kid. Plus, I think it just looks cool.
And from the cover designer, Kimberly Glyder:
As I began this cover design project with the challenge of visually representing fatherhood, one line that stood out to me in the cover brief was “Mann chronicles his own life with his young daughter.” This concept of chronicling the stages of fatherhood made me think of a how parent changes, shifting and adapting with their children through the years. The cover design outlines represent these subtle (and not so subtle) changes. To emphasize this connection, I also brought in a young child’s silhouette. The lines overlap one another and provide a visual sense of the iterative connections made between father and child.
Attachments will be published by the University of Iowa Press on May 26.
