Duvall Osteen has been with me from the jump. Intelligent, charming, fierce, family. Her and the whole Aragi Agency, a band of women small but mighty, including Gracie Dietshe. All good things for this novel came through the work of Team A.
Sean McDonald, Daniel Vazquez, and everyone else at MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for more enthusiasm and investment than I ever could have dreamed of, seriously.
My wife, Christina, and our entire life together. I was writing revisions when your contractions started, and you just kept breathing. We’ve been breathing ever since.
Benjamin Percy, who was the first person to believe.
Elizabeth Stork, who was the second person to believe.
Parul Sehgal, for masterfully guiding the first workshop I took, and later tossing me the first paid work I got as a writer. Also for letting me hang out with her and Adam, even after they got to know me.
Kathryn Savage: best fiction, best poetry, even better friendship. I’d take a bullet for her.
Emily Flamm, Carlea Holl-Jensen, Tom Earles, the Max Plateau mob. Best Sunday nights I had in DC. Thanks, Em, for letting me crash the party.
Lance Cleland and the whole Tin House family. I’m so glad I walked through the door when you opened it.
Michael Collier and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, for the support and honors. My first waiter reading in Little Theater was a gift of joy I‘ll never forget.
Dad, for telling me, “If someone told me when I was twenty that if I just practiced for half an hour every morning then the sky would be the limit, I’d have saved myself a lot of time.” I was listening.
Carolyn Kuebler at New England Review, who sent me the kindest rejection letter I’ve ever received, saying: I see you, I hear you, almost, keep trying.
Katrin Tschirgi, Gabrielle Hovendon, and Catherine Carberry, who welcomed me into their unholy trinity of cool one summer. Forever grateful for the brief time with you baddest bosses.
Those who came first: Lois Ann-Yamanaka, Kiana Davenport, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Kristiana Kahakauwila, Mary Kawena Pukui, Brandy Nālani McDougall, and all the other artists of the islands who preserve and amplify the truth of our land.
For anyone else I may have failed to mention: Just because I didn’t write it down doesn’t mean I don’t care, it just means I’m a parent and husband with two full-time jobs besides. Sometimes I forget things for a minute.