In Family: American Writers Remember Their Own (1997), editors Sharon Sloan Fiffer and Steve Fiffer collect essays from several American writers recalling family members who have changed their lives. Contributors include Edward Hoagland, Alice Hoffman, Jayne Ann Phillips, and Deborah Tannen, and there is also an afterword by Smiley.

In Joyce Carol Oates's 1996 novel We Were the Mulvaneys, an affluent, seemingly close-knit family gets torn apart after one of its members experiences a tragic event.

Like Smiley, E. Annie Proulx is an American writer regarded as a critical success for both her short stories and novels. Proulx's short-story collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999) includes a story titled "The Half-Skinned Steer." This story, like "Long Distance," depicts a man trying to make it through a brutal winter storm in the northern United States as well as the man's efforts to deal with...