I could not have written this book without the generosity and support of many people. I am indebted:
To Stephen Slemon. To Karyn Ball, Donald Goellnicht, Vijay Mishra, and Heather Zwicker, who read all of it the first time around.
To the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, and the J.B. Smallman Fund at the University of Western Ontario.
To Brad Bannon, Allison Hargreaves, Kiel Hume, Cristina Ionica, and Alia Somani for research assistance that went well above and beyond.
To Richard Cavell, Diana Brydon, David Chariandy, Sneja Gunew, Smaro Kamboureli, Roy Miki, and Eleanor Ty, who told me I was writing a book when I forgot.
To Siobhan McMenemy and Ryan Van Huijstee, who believed it was a book. To the anonymous readers of the manuscript whose thoughtfulness and thoroughness made this book better.
To Apollo Amoko, Ian Balfour, Melina Baum Singer, Jesse Brown, Jenny Burman, Eric Cazdyn, Katharine Charlton, Alison Conway, Margaret DeRosia, Jeff Derksen, Katherine Ensslen, Todd Ferguson, Aaron Hankewich, Emily Hill, Camilla Ingr, Joanne Hui, Alice Jim, Greg King, Martin Kreiswirth, Kinsley Kreiswirth, Larissa Lai, David Lloyd, Sue Malley, Richard McCabe, Sophie McCall, Mary Helen McMurran, Corey Mintz, Marni Mishna, Alex Panther, Thy Phu, Joe Rosich, Matthew Rowlinson, Mia Sheldon, Joshua Schuster, Ken Singer, Kim Solga, Cheryl Suzack, Karen Tam, Rei Terada, Bryce Traister, Sasha Torres, Pauline Wakeham, Dorothy Wang, and Keri Zwicker, whose friendship and guidance have seen me through the hard parts.
To Zachary Green for all the pies, and so much more, which got me through the home stretch.
To Fred Wah for the Diamond Grill menu and for writing poetry that got to things I knew but did not know how to say.
To my family.
To my parents, who dreamed of something other than what they knew at the Shangri-La Restaurant in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. It no longer exists, but that is not what matters. Their courage and love make everything possible. This book is for them.