ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This collection has been long in coming, and I owe my thanks to great many people. As ever, thank you to Scott H. Andrews of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and to Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Wick of Goblin Fruit, who took chances on my Birdverse stories and poems when I was just starting out. Many thanks to Patrick Swenson at Fairwood Press for giving this book a home, and to my wonderful agent Mary C. Moore for making it happen. Thanks to the queer and trans writers at the virtual pub (you know who you are) for cheerleading and lending an ear. Deep and abiding thanks to Shweta Narayan—if not for them, I would not be writing at all. Thanks to my spouse Bogi Takács, who read my first Birdverse story before we really knew each other, and decided to ask me about my deepname charts. I hope that the charts were worth it. Thanks to Corey Alexander, who will not read this book, but who will never be forgotten, and whose support still nourishes me. Thanks to Lisa M. Bradley, José M. Jimenez, Ash, Bryn Greenwood, Izzy Wasserstein, Nora E. Derrington, Nino Cipri, Nibedita Sen, Vitaly Chernetsky and Tom Robert for sharing food and friendship over the years.Thanks to friends and loved ones near and far. Thanks to all my Birdverse readers, those I know and those I don’t know. Thank you for reading and thinking about the stories. Thanks to everyone who voted for a Birdverse story or poem for awards, and/or recommended my work to other people.

A separate thanks to all the naysayers. My anger fed me when nothing else could. We deserve to be the protagonists of our stories. We deserve our own stories.

Last but not least, huge thanks to my patrons on Patreon, who supported me on this journey. Many of the poems you read in these pages and some of the stories first appeared on my Patreon. Thank you very much to Ada Hoffmann, Adri Joy, Akiva Hoffman, Alan Mark Tong, Ana, Andi C. Buchanan, Andrés Moon Ahn, August Zacher-Gabriel, Brooks Moses, Carl Olsen, Charles Payseur, D Franklin, Dan Campbell, Dee Morgan, Eli Brooke, Elise "Lioness" Matthesen, Jake Harm, James Aylett, Jay Wolf, Jeremy Brett, Jillian Stinchcomb, Joey Shoji, Jonathan K. Cohen, Juniper Rupprecht, Kat Weaver, Kate Barton, Kate Elliott, Kathryn Schild, Kiya Nicoll, Lauren Wallace, Maureen Lyn Bernard, Michael Talash Perelmutter, Mikayla Micomonaco, Miriam Roberts, Natalie Luhrs, Oliver L. Porter, Paige Kimble, Phil Margolies, Rachel Dell, Rivqa Rafael, Rose Fox, S. Jet Pak, Sara Gabai, Simon Crow, Toby MacNutt, Tom Vinson, V. Oggan, and all other patrons past and present. Without you, this work would have not been possible. I am looking forward to sharing more with you.