Bliss Broyard was born to Anatole Broyard, the noted essayist and New York Times Book Review critic, and to Alexandra, his wife, who edited her husband's memoir, Kafka Was the Rage, and published it after his death. Anatole Broyard was a prolific writer and a charismatic man and was obviously quite an influence on his daughter.

Not only did he inspire her to write, but to write passionately and affectionately about fathers. Bliss Broyard wrote poetry as a young child, and short stories in college.

The title story of her book, My Father, Dancing, is the tale of a young woman reminiscing about earlier days dancing with her father who is now lying on his deathbed.

Broyard began writing this story when her own father was dying of prostate cancer, and she took three years to complete it.

Anatole Broyard passed away in 1990, and...