ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to the entire Koehler Books team for their unending belief and support in my book. Special thanks to Hannah Woodlan for plucking my manuscript from the slush pile, John Koehler for making me feel at home from day one, and Joe Coccaro for the extremely insightful edits.

Thank you to the San Francisco Writers Grotto and the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University for supporting my work. Many of these stories were birthed and edited during my time as a Grotto Fellow and Steinbeck Fellow. Special thanks to Vanessa Hua, Tommy Mouton, Paul Douglass, and Nick Taylor.

Thank you to my MFA professors at Purdue University—Porter Shreve, Bich Minh Nguyen, Sharon Solwitz and Patricia Henley—and to my friends and fellow writers for the astute feedback on many of these stories: Shavonne Clarke, Natalie van Hoose, Tiffany Chiang, Terrance Manning, Mike Campbell, Kelsey Ronan, and Chidelia Edochie.

Thank you to the creative writing program at the University of Southern California for helping me build a daily writing routine and find my voice. Special thanks to my professors Viet Thahn Nguyen, James Ragan, Susan Segal, and Richard Fliegel. As always, a big hug of gratitude to Aimee Bender for being my role model as a writer, teacher, and human being.

Writing can be a lonely profession, and I am grateful for the supportive community of my online writing group that formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially Robert Aquinas McNally, Katya Cengel, Julia Bricklin, Susan Harness, and Matthew Kerns.

Thank you to Greg Spatz, Caitlin Horrocks, Leigh Camacho Rourks, and Peg Alford Purcell for your kind and generous support of this book.

Thank you to all of my teachers, classmates, and friends from elementary school onward who have encouraged my writing over the years. Too many to name, but you know who you are!

Thank you to my students and clients, who continually remind me of the joy and magic that comes from unleashing words onto the blank page.

Thank you to Jeffrey Dransfeldt for taking such lovely author headshots for me.

Thank you to my family, and to friends who have become family, for your continued support of my writing: Jess Ahoni, Allyn McAuley, Laurel Shearer, Colin McAuley, Kylie Neal, Mary Blasquez, Ann Silvestri, Arianna Silvestri, Amanda Rackley, Julie Hein, Melissa Kaganovsky, Erica Roundy, Dana Boardman, Lauren Baran, Carand Burnet, Michael Swaidan, Ben Raynor, Connie Halpern, Susan Goodkin, Kay Giles, Wayne and Kathy Bryan, Tavis Smiley, Barry Kibrick, Julie Merrick, Rima Muna, Patti Post, Lenore Pearson, Shana Lynn Schmidt, Justin and Rose Nishioka, Alicia Stratton, Tania Sussman, Henry Fung, Joan Redding, Anna Frandsen, and all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Thank you, always, to my grandma Auden and my dear friends Jewell Butcher and Céline Lucie Aziz for teaching me that love knows no tense.

Special thanks to my aunt Kym Woodburn King for her constant love, staunch optimism, and marathon phone calls that lift my spirits.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpap, Mary Lou and Gene Paschal, for always making me feel like a best-selling author; and to Gramps, Dr. James Dallas Woodburn II, for showing me the enduring power of a good story told and retold.

Forever gratitude to my mother-in-law, Barbara McAuley, for your fierce belief in me and my writing—and the countless hours of babysitting Maya so I have time to write!

A big hug to my sister-in-law and favorite librarian, Allyson McAuley, who gives the best book recommendations. I treasure our conversations.

Thank you to Holly Mueller, my wise friend and first reader, for always cheering me on.

Thank you to my brother, Greg, for teaching me about patience and faith, and for always boosting my spirits when it feels like the world is ending.

Thank you to my mom, Lisa, for believing in me and my writing—and for giving me the gift of time to pursue my dreams.

Thank you to my dad, Woody, for being my writing buddy and biggest fan. You are the reason I became a writer in the first place, and you are the best role model for finding joy in the creative process.

To my husband, Allyn: thank you for teaching me how to make paper, for taking me to the cabin in Mendocino with the proliferating throw rugs, for all the adventures and tiny miracles every day. I am so grateful to go through life with you. When the world is ending, you are the person I want by my side.

To my daughter, Maya: I love you infinity, always.