Content note: this story includes addiction, estrangement and the death of a parent.
Brittany Perham stopped answering her father's calls in college. His drinking had become frightening, and she needed distance. The silence lasted almost fifteen years.
In the last year of his life, she found herself back in a little bit of contact. She wanted to call him. She would walk around the house holding the phone, still afraid. There was one good conversation. Then there was a hospital room at Mass General, where she and her brother had to let him go.
Brittany says the conversation with her father did not end there. It moved into her own mind.
This is a short stretch of my conversation with Brittany. Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33QBAN62oLA
About Brittany Perham
Brittany's memoir, Executrix (University of Georgia Press), won the 2025 AWP Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction. She is also the author of Double Portrait (W.W. Norton) and The Curiosities. She is an associate professor of English at Endicott College.
Website: https://www.brittanyperham.com
If you are struggling with grief, suicide or addiction, you can call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
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