ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My profound gratitude to the team at Curbside Splendor Publishing, who threw their hearts and brains and muscle behind this book: Victor Giron, Jacob Knabb, Naomi Huffman, Ben Tanzer, and my editor, Leonard Vance, who is brilliant and, above all else, patient. Special thanks to Lauryn Allison for bringing me aboard, and to Alban Fischer, who made this thing so goddamn beautiful.

When I was a kid, my dad told me stories and my mom read books to me. They’ve given me many gifts over the years, but I’m most grateful for those stories and books. If I can be half the parent they are, my son is lucky indeed.

Thank you to the staff, storytellers, and audience of 2nd Story, who’ve inspired and challenged me for over a decade, and to the faculty, staff, and students of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago, where I learned—and continue to learn—the craft of writing and the art of teaching. Many thanks to the Center For Innovation in Teaching Excellence; the Ragdale Foundation; and Derrick Robles and John Latino at the Bongo Room, whose friendship and business supported me while I figured out what the hell I was doing.

All of this, the working and the writing and the running and the living—It takes a village. Lucky for me, I have one. I have the best one. Thank you, all of you, especially Randy Albers, Dia Penning, Bobby Biedrzycki, Amanda Dimond, Lott Hill, and Jeff Oaks. Again and again, you told me I could do it, and again and again, you told me I could do it better.

My whole heart is for Christopher and Caleb Jobson. In those rare moments when it’s still and quiet, I shut my eyes, and think about how lucky I am, and I can’t even breathe.