ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to PJ Mark for reading this a million times and for not just helping me find the right home for the book but also helping me carve the right book out of the original jumble of words I sent you. Thanks to Megan Lynch and Laura Perciasepe for taking this book on and picking up where PJ and I left off, and to all the amazing folk at Riverhead Books for their continued support and enthusiasm and for telling everyone how much they like both my books and my pies.
Every writer needs a first reader. For years now, Bryan Dunn has been mine, and I can’t thank him enough for his thoughtful readings of my work. To his name, I now add both Emily Raw and Kerry DeMunn, and thank them both as well.
Many thanks also go out to E. Tyler Lindvall, Dinaw Mengestu, Owen Egerton, Marie-Helene Bertino, and Hillery Hugg for reading or listening to portions of this and offering me unbridled encouragement to keep moving forward.
Thanks to the Institute of American Indian Arts and the University of Kentucky, my colleagues at both of these grand institutions, for their support, for great students to work with, and the time and space in which to write, test, and revise.
But most of all, thanks to my mom and dad and my sister, who put up with me and continue to put up with me for going on very many years, and for my kids, Anabel and Dashiell, who are only now realizing just how much work it takes to put up with me, and eternally — literally, for an eternity — thanks to you, Sharon. You make putting up with me seem clever and fun.