I would like to thank the editors and staff of the following publications in which several of the poems in this collection first appeared.
The Cincinnati Review: “How to Tie a Knot,” “Pluto’s Gate: Mississippi,”
“There’s Nothing Wrong with You”
Connotation Press: “Take Me As I Am”
Narrative: “Ode: Feeling Up My Friend’s Sister at the Moment Their
Drunken Father Begins the Dog Slaughter”
The New Guard: “Love Letter to You, Dear Reader”
New South: “O Anna Lynn, You Must Have Known,” “It Was Like a
Movie,” “The Guitar Boat”
The Normal School: “So Many Stories”
Ploughshares: “Chicken Brick’n,” “Free Checking!” “Smote”
Southern Poetry Review: “The Full Ratio,” “Not Soul”
“How to Tie a Knot” also appeared in Best American Poetry 2012, edited by Mark Doty.
“How to Tie a Knot” and “Smote” also appeared on Poetry Daily.
My sincere gratitude to Florida State University for their support during the period in which these poems were written. Also, my thanks to John and Renée Grisham and the University of Mississippi for a fellowship that afforded me a nine-month residency in which much of this work was begun. Lastly, my eternal gratitude for the continued encouragement and editorial acumen of Adam Boles, Erin Belieu, Robert Olen Butler, John Deming, Kerry James Evans, Juan Carlos Galeano, Chris Hayes, Robert Herschbach, Judy Jordan, Jami Kimbrell, Chris Mink, C. Leigh McInnis, and Jane Springer.