Man up! Be a man! How many times have you heard it? The personal essays and poems in the anthology Being: What Makes a Man, edited by Jill McCabe Johnson, take a close look at the life experiences that (re)define what makes a man. From Marvin Bell sharing his experience as a soldier to Dinty Moore’s Down in the Hole to David Shields’ Negotiating Against Myself, the authors in Being: What Makes a Man share the sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious truth about facing love, loss, fatherhood, fire, injury, war, and the ever-present challenge to Be a man!