Thank you to those who helped me better understand life in a refugee camp and the immigrant experience: Fr. Russell Daye, Boghros Barbouri, and Steve Law at the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia.
Thank you to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, my teachers, and so many writers who have inspired me.
Thank you to my students at Mount Saint Vincent University, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, and the Nova Scotia Community College, who taught me more than I ever taught them.
Thank you to my beta readers, Anne Louise O’Connell and Susan Heinrich, who read early manuscripts and suggested necessary adjustments.
Thank you to Whitney Moran at Vagrant Press, who gave me generous feedback and said yes(!), and to my editor, the incomparable Stephanie Domet, who was direct, specific, kind, tough, and warm in equal measure. Thank you to Ahmed Danny Ramadan, for reading the manuscript through the lens of a Syrian person who came to Canada and performing a sensitivity edit. Whitney’s, Stephanie’s, and Danny’s suggestions and endorsements mean the world to me.
Thank you to wise friends and cheerleaders inside and outside of writing, editing, and publishing businesses, particularly Kat Kruger, Jay and Hazel Millar, my fellow Ravens book club members, my mom, Diane Lane, Adriane Abbott and University of King’s College colleagues, Lola Augustine Brown, Angela Trainor, Danielle Cordon, and Monica Arab—for living through this with me, for invaluable conversations, and for also giving me time and space to write.
Thank you to my immediate family, Manfred, Curtis, and Eric Gangl, for understanding and indulging my need to write, and even more so for inspiration, focus, laughter, and love.
And saving the most heartfelt for last, thank you to my writing group, who read each chapter multiple times: Jill Hamilton, Susan Church, Cheri Wilson, Carol Moreira, and Mary Lou Petersen. I simply could not have written this book without your encouragement, criticism, and friendship. You showed me that writing doesn’t have to be lonely or isolating, but rather it can be a team effort. When I got a new job and had three weeks in which to do a total rewrite and was full of doubt that I’d be able to do it, you all gently said, “Yes, you can. Now get to work.” I am eternally grateful.