TO KRISTEN ELIAS ROWLEY and the University of Nebraska Press for shaping this book and for all they do to promote literary nonfiction. To Gregory Gerard, James Graves, Jenny Lloyd, Elizabeth Osta, Sally Parker, Deanna Ferguson, Jim Mott, and Maureen McGuire for careful readings. To my colleagues at the University of Memphis, my writing community from the University of New Orleans, and my students who mean more than they know. To Dinty W. Moore, Linda Allardt, Joseph and Amanda Boyden, and every writing teacher I’ve ever had (including Srs. Eileen Daly and Clare Ehmann, who kept me in line and taught me to diagram sentences, in that order).
To Gail and Peter Mott, Elizabeth Ross, Kristen Iversen, Richard Bausch, Marcia Aldrich, John Griswold. Deb Wolkenberg, Gia Lioi, Craig Bullock, Lisa Shillingburg, and friends, editors, and former colleagues who have so generously supported my work. To Toni Plummer, Valerie Sayers, Jennifer Warlick, Kathryn J. Thomas, Susan Latoski, Nancy Bennett, Darlene Cowles, Patricia Roth Schwartz, Beth Lathrop, Kathy Zawicki, Leigh Simone, Nina Mortellaro, Connie Boyd, Natalie Parker-Lawrence, Mary Louise McClelland, Beth Thomas, Minter Krotzer, Terra Keller, Betsy Hoffer, Kelly McQuain, Shelley Puhak, Kathleen Willis, Julia Walsh Postler, Leanne Charlesworth, MJ Iuppa, Mary Anne Parker-Hancock, Adam Lewandowski, Scott Gould, Mamie Morgan, Young Smith, Curt Nehring Bliss, Terry Forward, Roberta Liebhaber, Leanne Charlesworth, Phil Memmer, Kathy Pottetti, Martin Lammon, Carol Moldt, Deb Vanderbilt, Jen Litt, Anne Panning, Sarah Freligh, and others who invited me into their classrooms and organizations.
To Ellen Wheeler and Mary Ellen Sweeney of the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester, New York, for the tour, good information, and for putting up with silly questions.
To my family—Livingstons, Skyes, Rosarios, Heywoods, and Motts—who remain my primary way of knowing the world. To families and friends from Corpus Christi, especially those from the old neighborhood—who could have guessed that a dead-end street could stay in the heart so long?
To Jim Mott for knowing when pelicans will fly over Arkansas and where to best view the moonrise and how to find wild azaleas along trails that have become our own.