The Bitter Oleander: “Unlearn to Seek”;
Black Warrior Review: “Children in Alaska”;
The Brooklyn Review: “Gravity Changes”;
Caketrain: “A Tinkle Is the Sound of Two Things Meeting but Failing to Merge”;
Cold Mountain Review: “The Loneliness of Large Bathrooms”;
The Conium Review: “The Eating Habits of Famous Actors” and “Sleeping Bears”;
Forklift, Ohio: “My 9/11 Story”
Hotel Amerika: “Cockpuncher”;
Outlet Magazine: “This Next Song”;
PANK: “Extispicy”;
Phoebe: “Little Gray Moon” and “Use Your Spoon”;
Pindledyboz: “The Tunnels They Dig”;
Quiddity: “Joan Plays Power Ballads with Slightly Revised Lyrics”;
Red Bridge Press Anthology of Writing That Risks: “When as Children We Acted Memorably.”
Hugs all around for the crew at Seersucker Live: Christopher Berinato, Brian Dean, Joseph Schwartzburt, Erika Jo Brown, B.J. Love, Gino Orlandi, Alexis Orgera, Ariel Felton, and Jenny Dunn.
The coffee is on me at Gallery Espresso, where I sat for untold hours and wrote almost everything in this book.
High fives to the Peacock Guild Writers Salon at the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, especially Alison Niebanck, Brennen Arkins, Jessi-Lyn Curry, Christy Hahn, and Paul Byall.
Firm handshakes to those who offered feedback along the way: Ariane Simard, Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, Michael Lowenthal, and the editors of the journals where these stories were first published.
A toast to these other supportive people: Catherine Killingsworth, Thomas Calder, J. R. Saylor, Billie Stirewalt, Aaron Devine, Joni and Chris at The Book Lady Bookstore, Traci Lombardo, Lindsay Chudzik, and Peter Conners and Jenna Fisher at BOA Editions.
Love to the whole family, and to that most significant of others, Stephanie Grimm.
And in memory of Jeremy Mullins and Kirk Lawrence, the two best creative collaborators a person could hope for.
