THANK YOU TO MY CREATIVE, CURIOUS, AND INFINITELY SUPPORTIVE parents, Deane and Jill Johnson, who inundated me with love and books, and my brothers, Nate and Daniel.
Thank you to PJ Mark, my brilliant fierce agent.
Thank you to Jessica Williams, my visionary editor, whose talent, insight, and intelligence proved transformative.
Thank you to all of the superb Custom House crew, especially Geoff Shandler, Liate Stehlik, Laura Cherkas, Aja Pollock, Kelly Welch Rudolph, Katherine Turro, Eliza Rosenberry, and Mary Ann Petyak. Thank you to Michael Taeckens for your expert navigation. Thank you to R. Kikuo Johnson, Mumtaz Mustafa, and William Ruoto for your art and design.
Thank you to readers and advisers Brian Perez, Sean Martinez, Carrie Brownstein, Amanda Paulk, Donal Mosher, Torrence Stratton, Frances de Ponte Peebles, and Andrea Ferreira Schumacher. Extra effusive thanks to Nicole J. Georges, Peyton Marshall, Amy Thielen, and Kara Thompson for essential early reads.
Thank you to all my Portland and ex-Portland friends and families and rock camp comrades. This book is a homesick love letter to you.
Thank you to all the queer writers and fighters and artists.
Thank you to all my students over the years, for all you have taught me.
Thank you to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop for getting me going, and to the Wallace Stegner Fellowship for lighting the spark that became this book. Thank you to all my teachers, especially Tove Dahl, Bruce Burkman, Helen Bonner, David Walker, Ellen Douglas, Frank Conroy, Marilynne Robinson, James Alan McPherson, John L’Heureux, Elizabeth Tallent, and Tobias Wolff, and my fellow Fellows and workshop-mates.
Thank you to the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Signal Fire Arts for transformative writing residencies. Thank you to the Willamette Week for access to the archives. Thank you to Oberlin College and the College of William & Mary for crucial support.
Thank you to Emmett and Sylvan for long clarifying walks and lying at my feet while I write, and to Seven for being Edith.
Thank you forever to Kara, for giving me new ways of knowing.