I’M THANKFUL to Odette Sara Vaughan for directing me to Guernica, and to Michael Mirolla for giving this book such a fine home.
It was my good fortune at Guernica to work with Margo LaPierre, who generously brought to the manuscript the force of her talent as a poet, along with superb editorial acumen and finesse. I appreciate all I have learned from her as well as the pleasure of her attuned literary companionship.
I would like to thank several people for their valuable feedback: my sisters Ilana Nayman and Michele Nayman, who were enthusiastic readers, and also pointed up some factual errors; Michelle Caplan, who helped me rethink a key issue; and Yitzhak Ajzner, whose meticulous reading provided crucial religious, cultural, and historical details, and numerous important corrections.
My gratitude to the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute for a grant in support of this book, and also to The MacDowell Colony for a fellowship that afforded precious writing time and newfound community.
And I am deeply grateful to my family, near and far, for the collective experience of our ongoing lives.