Acknowledgments

Enormous thanks to:

My tremendously wise and caring agent, Bill Clegg, whose enduring belief in these stories has meant the world to me. Everyone else at William Morris Endeavor, especially Chris Clemans, Raffaella De Angelis and Shaun Dolan.

My brilliant and thoughtful editor, Jill Bialosky, whose guidance with this book has been immeasurably valuable. The terrific Erin Sinesky Lovett, for her remarkable dedication and enthusiasm. The rest of the wonderful team at Norton, particularly Bill Rusin, Ann-Marie Damian, Julia Druskin, Ingsu Liu, Nancy Palmquist, Rebecca Schultz, Cardon Webb and Fred Wiemer.

The Stanford University Creative Writing Program, for the generosity of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship. My extraordinary teachers there: John L’Heureux, Elizabeth Tallent, Colm Tóibín and Tobias Wolff, for their insights and example. Christina Ablaza, Krystal Griffiths, Ryan Jacobs and Mary Popek, for always having the answer. And Eavan Boland, whose support and mentorship over the years has gone above and beyond.

My teachers and classmates at Columbia University; and the U Cross Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Sewanee Writers Conference, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Mesa Refuge, San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, Summer Literary Seminars in Lithuania and Sozopol Fiction Seminars in Bulgaria. Blue Mountain Center feels like a second home, and Harriet Barlow, Alice Gordon and Ben Strader feel like family.

My trusted group of readers, all incredible writers and cherished friends: Sarah Frisch, Skip Horack, Kirstin Valdez Quade and Stacey Swann.

My Stegner workshop-mates, who offered incisive feedback on drafts of some of these stories and remain a group of people I feel lucky to have in my life.

Aimee Bender and Micah Perks, for getting me started.

This long and—I fear—incomplete list of people who provided crucial support along the way, from editing to researching, to letting me sleep on their couches: Andrew Foster Altschul, Adrianne and Michael Bank, Harriet and Richard Bass, Rick Bass, Elizabeth Bernstein, Will Boast, Jeremiah Chamberlain, Harriet Clark, Katie Crouch, Rusty Dolleman, Mike Durrie, Jim Gavin, Maria Hummel, Scott Hutchins, Mikhail Iossel, Ken Kalfus, Tom Kealey, Dana Kletter, Adam Johnson, Yael Goldstein Love, Catherine Lucas, Mike McGriff, Laura McKee, Oren Manor, Haaris Mir, Stuart Nadler, Peter Orner, Jamie Quatro, Victoria Redel, Justin St. Germain, Christine Schutt, Stephanie Soileau, Shimon Tanaka, Jesmyn Ward and Jennie Yabroff.

Jennifer Terk Chance, Julia Ellis, Emily Freed, Brian Garrick, Sarah Grafman, Helen Kim, Shanna Pittman-Frank, Michelle Prats, Dean Vuletic and David Washburn, for being there from the very beginning.

My amazing and ever-growing family of Antells, Antopols, DuNours, Griers, Hirsches, Johnsons, Moskins, Silberlings, Goldmans and Tigays—I love you all more than you know.

Finally, my deepest thanks to Chanan Tigay, best reader and best friend.

 

Molly Antopol teaches creative writing at Stanford University, where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming on NPR’s This American Life, online at The New Yorker, and in periodicals, including the New Republic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Elle, San Francisco Chronicle, Oxford American, One Story, Ecotone and elsewhere, and has earned her a “5 Under 35” award from the National Book Foundation. She lives in San Francisco and is at work on a novel. For more information, visit www.mollyantopol.com.