The themes of "A Conversation with My Father" also figure in the other pieces of short fiction in the collection in which the story was first published in 1974, Paley's Enormous Changes at the Last Minute.

Metafiction, or fiction about writing fiction, was an innovative form in the 1970s, and Paley's fiction is part of this interest in experimentation. Another metafictional collection of short stories is Robert Coover's Pricksongs and Descants (1969).

Another feminist writer who published during the 1970s, Marge Piercy explores women's lives, patriarchal structures, and the Jewish-American experience in her novels and poetry. Small Changes (1973) and

Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) offer illuminating comparisons with Grace Paley's works.

Todd Gitlin's The Sixties is a cultural history written by a participant in the social upheavals of the decade.