This book has changed and grown monumentally in the several years between first draft and final form. None of it would have been possible without my agents, Lara Perkins and Laura Rennert, whose keen feedback over several pre-sale drafts helped shape When You and I Collide from an idea to a book. Innumerable thanks to them both, and to the rest of the team at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
I’m also deeply grateful to the team at Philomel, especially my editor, Liza Kaplan, whose insights helped this book become itself, and to associate editor Talia Benamy. And many thanks to eagle-eyed copyeditors Laura Blackwell and Krista Ahlberg! I’m in awe of everything this publishing team was able to accomplish, especially during a year as tragically challenging as 2020.
I completed the first draft of this novel over one summer break during my MFA program at the Ohio State University. As a writer, I owe a debt of gratitude to the faculty and classmates who helped shape my work during my three years there, and as a person, I’m so thankful for the friends I found there.
If this book has piqued your interest in the history and philosophy of math and science, well, you just might want to check out St. John’s College. That’s where I was first introduced to the works of Faraday, Schrödinger, Einstein, Fermi, and the like. It’s a unique little school that’s not for everyone, but it just might be for you. The fingerprints of my education there are all over this book—and my life—in a way I’m forever grateful for. That said, I’m definitely a writer, not a physicist. Any errors on that front are my own!
Finally, deep thanks to my parents, who always insisted I was brilliant and could do anything, and who supported my writing from the time I was a little kid, when I had almost no sense of plot and my spelling was even more atrocious than it is now. And I simply must thank my brothers, Pat and Dave: growing up with the two of you by my side was a gift.
There are lots of other people I love and appreciate. Hopefully you all know.