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Joy Passanante ’69 published her fourth book, Through a Long Absence: Words from My Father’s Wars, in August (Ohio State University Press, Mad River Books). It is her first book of nonfiction, having already published three poetry, short stories, and a novel. “Drawing on the wartime diary, letters, and paintings of my father, Bart Passanante, I narrate his World War II experiences overseas as a surgeon-in-training and his nearly three-year separation from my mother. The book also tells the story of my parents’ upbringing as the children of immigrants in St. Louis, including my father’s stint as a child bootlegger, and of my husband’s and my adventures and revelations as we followed his bootsteps around Europe.”