My thanks to:
My editors—Kate Medina and Erica Gonzalez at Random House, and Mark Richards at John Murray—for all their help, patience, and positivity during the years when The Art of Falling was taking shape; my amazing agent Lucy Luck at C&W, who read umpteen drafts of this novel and made inspired suggestions; my writing group members: Barbara Leahy, Marie Gethins, Marie Murphy, John Mee, and David Brennan for their friendship and support and for making me a better writer; Listowel Writers Week and Noelle Campbell-Sharpe for time spent writing at beautiful Cill Rialaig; the Department of English UCC, where I was lucky enough to be Writer-in-Residence in 2018; the community of readers and writers at Fiction at the Friary, Cork, and especially my friend and co-founder Madeleine D’Arcy; Nuala O’Connor for the writing workshop at Waterford Writers Weekend in 2012, where the “Chalk Sculpture” first sparked into life; Declan Meade and the Stinging Fly Press for having faith in my writing when I was just starting out; the Munster Literature Centre for their support and encouragement over the years, and especially for those workshops in 2010–2011 led by Lory Manrique-Hyland.
My thanks to John and our children, Ellie, Áine, and Rory, for everything—you are the most supportive family a writer could wish for!