Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the following publications that gave early versions of these poems a space:

The Adroit Journal: “You’ll Never Love Me”;

American Poetry Review: “Given,” “Into the City, I Become Become”;

Dreginald: “A Shiver in the Leaves,” “Passed Down,” “Prayer”;

Foglifter Journal: “Dearest”;

Four Way Review: “As the Fog Rolls In, Night Finds Its Footing”;

Glass: A Poetry Journal: “There Will Be Mourning”;

New England Review: “Culture”;

Orion: “Near Sacrament”;

The Paris Review Daily: “It Is February”;

Poem-a-Day: “My Mother, My Mother,” “When Struck by Night”;

Poetry: “Leave the Crows Out of It,” “Mercy,” “Stay Safe,” “Tenor,” “Thine Will Be Done”;

Poetry Northwest: “The Death of a Moth,” “Inside the River, I Covet”;

The Rumpus: “The Dead Are Beautiful Tonight,” “Such Things Require Tenderness,” “The Wind Did What the Wind Came to Do”;

Southeast Review: “Making the Bed”;

Sporklet: “Aubade”;

Tinderbox: “He Went Away Without Saying Goodbye” as “He Went Away Without Bidding Farewell”;

TriQuarterly: “Fallen Angel”;

Up the Staircase Quarterly: “Faith Opens the Trapdoor”;

Washington Square Review: “The Fever,” “The River”;

Winter Tangerine: “In Seattle,” “Obsession Gets on One Knee”.

“The Sound of Hunting” was published as “Trayvon” in the chapbook, Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018).

I have so much love and gratitude to extend, and if I forget any names, please charge it to my head and not my heart. To the following people, I thank you for your brilliance, guidance, presence, teaching, friendship, and generosity over the years whether directly or indirectly:

Sarina Anderson, Taneum Bambrick, Jericho Brown, Mahogany Browne, CM Burroughs, Joshua Corson, Mayah Daniels, Jermey Edmonson, Camonghne Felix, Lisa Fishman, Aricka Foreman, Derek Holland, Patrycja Humienik, Ashaki Jackson, Donika Kelly, Koach, Keetje Kuipers, Nabila Lovelace, Tariq Luthun, Charleen McClure, Rai McKinley, Jonah Mixon-Webster, Nicholas Nichols, Emily Pittinos, Joy Priest, Gabriel Ramirez, Julian Randall, Justin Phillip Reed, Alison C. Rollins, Nicole Sealey, Danez Smith, Jayson Smith, Monica Sok, Paul Tran, Donavin Whisler, Phillip B. Williams, Emma Ruth Wilson, L. Lamar Wilson, Mimi Wong, Jenny Xie, and Joshua Young.

A special thank you to Eloisa Amezcua for taking the time to edit an early draft of this book. A Shiver in the Leaves would not be what it is today without your intelligence.

To my dear friends and partners in crime, Gabrielle Bates and Dujie Tahat—thank you. I have not been the same since we met that one fall evening in Open Books. I appreciate you and keep you close to my heart. Your humor and brilliance are unmatched. To the poets we’ve interviewed and laughed with and possibly gotten too drunk with on The Poet Salon, your words have changed me. Thank you.

There is much to say about how you taught me at Washington University in St. Louis, Mary Jo Bang, francine j. harris, and Carl Phillips, but I will keep it short. Without you, my poetry and how I read poetry would not have developed for the better. Thank you, truly. To the cohorts in my year, above, and below, thank you for taking time with my work and for your care.

Thank you to my years at Cave Canem and the poets I’ve met, studied with, played spades with, laughed with, and more.

I am grateful to have gotten support from the Poetry Foundation, The Conversation Literary Festival, and 92Y Poetry Center. Your support has helped these poems exist and fly.

To BOA Editions—endless gratitude for believing in this book. I am happy that in this life, I get to publish with such an amazing press.

To my family, specifically my mom and dad, thank you. I love you.

To my boyfriend: I love you. Let’s have a glass of wine later.