Gratitude to the editors and staff of the magazines and periodicals that published the following poems: “Honeymoon” in Poetry magazine. “Gift Planet” in The New Yorker. “Bakamonotako” in granta.com. “The Home Team” on Poem-a-Day by The Academy of American Poets. “No Traveler Returns,” “There Was No Before,” and “Are Women People?” in American Poetry Review. “Identity & Community,” “Sel de la Terre, Sel de Mer,” and “Our Beloved Infinite Crapulence” in Berkeley Poetry Review. “Blueberries for Cal,” “Wellness Rituals,” and, in modified form, “Evening Prayer for the Humans” in Paris Review. “Wellness Rituals” was written for Jessica Rankin’s 2017 solo exhibition at Touchstones Art Gallery in Rochdale, U.K.
These poems were inspired by reading Emily St. John Mandel’s novel Station Eleven and Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness.
This book owes its existence to The MacDowell Colony (where I wrote most of it) and Civitella Ranieri (where I finished it). Gratitude to The Vermont Studio Center, Denniston Hill, Provincetown FAWC, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Thank you so much for the various essential gifts of time, peace, space, and/or funds.
Appreciation and thanks beyond words to my colleagues and students at Rutgers University–Newark; beyond words, too, is the grief of losing beloved Jan Ellen Lewis, our Dean of Arts and Sciences, who championed writers, who cared so deeply about supporting us and the work of literature.
Love to those good eggs in my home community in NJ—I don’t believe they know how much they helped me write this book, in particular Kate Francis Hardy, Reubena Spence, Addie Morfoot, and Ross Kauffman. To Wendy Gould-Nogueira: you inspire me every day—how I wish you ran the world.
Poets, friends, mentors, coconspirators who gave me hope post-2016 election: Robin Coste Lewis, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Natalie Diaz, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Mark Bibbins, John Keene, Jessica Rankin, Deborah Landau, Tayari Jones, Suzanne Buffam, Robyn Schiff, Ellis Avery, Monica Youn, Eliza Factor, Amy Herzog, Elizabeth Gold, Mark Wunderlich, Dana Cadman, Urvashi Vaid, Kate Clinton, Wendy Brown, Fran Bartkowski, Paola Prestini, EnactLab, and my adored Pretendettes.
Two mentors who shaped me, Lucie Brock-Broido and Helene Moglen, died, and I didn’t say good-bye. So I’ll say it here, with an infinite thank-you. I know what I learned from you made me a writer. Grateful that you lived and taught. I was so lucky to receive what you gave.
I cannot thank Deborah Garrison enough for her wise, true guidance, clear eye, and for always leading with heart and mind entwined.
Admiration, praise, and thanks to Todd Portnowitz, Nimra Chohan, Kelly Forsythe, and Leslie Shipman for making heavy lifting seem like smooth sailing.
To Craig: there’s no one I’d rather share kids, home, life, strife, self, and poetry with. In case of apocalypse: that too, I know, will be better with you. I love you.