This book was made possible by the extreme kindness and care of the creatives and family I am blessed to have around me. Writing a book is mostly an exercise in combating insecurity while trying to feel grateful. I love it—thank you to everyone who has listened to me say that for years upon years.
An overwhelming thank you to my wife, Celia, who spent the last few years while I worked on CRYBABY working doubly as hard on her craft as a literary translator. Your endless support for me is outdone only by your uncanny ability to translate until 2AM nightly so we can enjoy our life with our cats and parrot. The groundswell of love I have for you and who you are is immeasurable.
As always, a massive thank you to Dave, my agent, and Jacob, my editor, who see my quirky thoughts and projects for what they really are—and for giving me space to figure things out since everything I write needs to be rewritten twice before I know what’s actually going on with the text. Your combined experience, patience, and willingness to talk to me on the phone for hours is appreciated.
I have a handful of close friends and confidants who made the process of writing this book less troublesome and overwhelming: Tyler, Raph, Jeff, Sam, Nicole, M, Steve, and everyone else with commenting permissions in the Google Doc. As well, I am grateful for Khan and Chubbs, two cats who have designs on eating my laptop, but who have never actually broken the screen. Great work, you two!