First and foremost, thanks to my agent, DongWon Song, who helped maneuver this book into Tor’s hands, where I always hoped it would be. Carl Engle-Laird is a fantastic editor, and was infinitely patient when I was editing this in between teaching and defending my thesis. Much gratitude to the team at Tor.com for their hard work, including Irene Gallo, Christine Foltzer, Mordicai Knode, Caroline Perny, and Amanda Melfi.
Lara Elena Donnelly gave me the premise for this story when she had the perfect answer to “Where would a wormhole in IKEA lead to?”
This story was originally written as a screenplay for Darren Canady’s workshop at the University of Kansas. It was shaped by his brilliant feedback, and by my classmates’.
Nibedita Sen is the best human, you will not change my mind. She made sure I had adequate caffeine, water, and snugs to finish the initial draft, and told me never to start a story with a character being sad and mopey on a bus. She is very wise.
Karin Tidbeck was my Swedish consultant and came up with the name for the FINNA. Mar Romasco Moore and Meg Ellison were amazing beta readers, and Rivers Solomon provided a stellar and insightful sensitivity read. Birch Harlen and Jay Wolf helped me come up with fake corporate brands, and Birch is responsible for Pasta and Friends, which is perfectly loathsome.
Jessica Fujan and Zoë Lukens helped me survive my first-ever trip to IKEA. k8 Walton helped me survive, period.
I would not be here, be me, or be writing without my mom, Ellen, or my sibling, Leah.
This book is dedicated to my grandmothers: Phyllis Simons, Vera Anderson, and Elma Connolly, whom I love dearly and miss deeply. I wish they were alive to see their names written here. I am so lucky to have shared as many years as I did with them.
Lastly, Ursula K. Le Guin’s work opened a lot of doorways in my imagination, and she reminded us all that the paradigms of power are neither inescapable nor omnipotent. We can imagine better alternatives.