This book was many years in the making, from conception to realization. I had a great deal of help along the way, for which I am immensely grateful. Thank you first and foremost to my parents, Else and Sjef, and my siblings, Boukje and Jelmer, as well as to the extended Eerkens and de Kock families, who allowed me to expose them on the page and gave so freely and generously of themselves when I had questions. In particular, thank you to Rob and Orselien de Kock, Bouk de Kock, Jozien Verschoof, Liesbeth Verschoof, Joost Verschoof, Petra Verschoof, Cees and Metty Eerkens, Willemien de Kock, Hanke de Kock, Sjoeke van der Meulen, Aris van Hoeflaken, Maaike van Hoeflaken, and Frans van Hoeflaken, as well as the late Hannie de Kock, Pim de Kock, and Fieneke Verschoof, for their contribution to my family research. Thank you to the kind employees of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) and the Dutch National Archives for the hours of research in their libraries. For their gift of time, space, and/or financial support, I’d like to express my gratitude to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the James Merrill House, Hambidge Center for the Arts, Foundation Obras, the Stanley Foundation, and the John Anson Kittredge Fund. This book would never have found its way to print without my supportive and hardworking agent, Sarah Levitt, and my amazing editor, Anna deVries, whom I appreciate immensely. Thank you to Sibylle Kazeroid for her copyediting, and to my publicist, Brianna Scharfinberg. Thank you also to all my former colleagues, professors, and workshop cohorts at the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction MFA program who read various parts of this in its earliest fragments, and in particular Robin Hemley, Patricia Foster, John D’Agata, Geoff Dyer, and Matthew Clark Davison for their guidance. Thank you (in no particular order) to Amy Butcher, Kerry Howley, Kristen Radtke, Inara Verzemnieks, Zaina Arafat, Rachel Yoder, Ariel Lewiton, Jen Percy, Lina Maria Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas, Matt Siegel, Cheryl Strayed, Rachel Pearson, Julie Rae Mitchell, Shana Ting Lipton, Bryan Castille, Dorothianne Carr and all “Camp Dot” residents, Huan Hsu, Alice Elliott Dark, Diederik van Vleuten, Franca Treur, and Kyle Minor, for their various words of book-related encouragement, input, and/or inspiration over the years when I needed each of those things to keep going in my writing.
If I included all the people I love in this list, there wouldn’t be room, but know that you are acknowledged and thanked too, for all the things you do to support and nourish me.