An abundant amount of thanks is owed to the following people:
Danielle Burby, for believing in this story when I had all but given up on it.
Vicki Lame, for giving Edgewood the perfect home at Wednesday Books and helping me make it the best it could be.
The team at Wednesday Books, most especially: Vanessa Aguirre, Angelica Chong, Alexis Neuville, Brant Janeway, Meghan Harrington, Alyssa Gammello, Carla Benton, Lena Shekhter, Barbara Wild, and Devan Norman.
Tara Philips, for the beautiful, romantic rendering of Emeline.
Kerri Resnick, for turning Tara’s art into the cover of my dreams.
Tanaz Bhathena, DJ DeSmyter, Jo Hathaway, Rosaria Munda, Eloise Andry, and Emily Smith: for your warmhearted friendship, wisdom, and feedback.
Evelyn Skye, Gita Trelease, Joan He, E. K. Johnston, Tricia Levenseller, and Isabel Ibañez for reading Edgewood early and lending your kind words for blurbs.
Emily Gref and Kelly Delaney, for taking a chance on the seed of this story all those years ago.
Heather Flaherty, for everything.
Rudy Klassen, for introducing me to Beowulf in eleventh grade. Good teachers make all the difference.
Speaking of good teachers: Dave Hunter, for always believing in me wholeheartedly.
Valérie Mailhot and Annie Duhaime, for correcting my error-ridden French. Merci beaucoup!
Kate Goodwin and Laura Bauman, whose long-distance postpartum support helped me juggle a newborn and a book deadline.
Melanie Cameron, along with The Muses’ Company, for letting Hawthorne quote Holding the Dark in the bookstore scene. (And Jennifer Mains, for introducing me to Melanie’s poetry. Looking forward to our next late-night chat by your woodstove.)
Canada Council for the Arts, for helping fund this project.
My family, for your unconditional love and support. (Special thanks to Jolene, Mum, Dad, and Nathan for watching Sibyl while I got my edits done.)
Joseph Bauman, for writing the lyrics to Emeline’s song and for reading this story more times than I can count. Your steadfastness is woven through all of these pages, and every time I read them, I find you in them, my love.