A book of stories by and about women must naturally owe the most to the two extraordinary women I live with: my loving and resourceful wife, Lucy Blake, who is steadfast in her defense of the beauties of the earth; and my daughter, Gabriella, of lustrous and independent mind—she has been her whole life my teacher.
This book and my previous one, Granada: A Pomegranate in the Hand of God, are both published by Counterpoint Press, which is a most admirable enterprise, full of professionals who do mindful, daily, careful work. The editorial director of Counterpoint is Jack Shoemaker, in whose debt I stand: he is a prodigiously gifted editor, and a patient, deeply learned man. Any writer in the country would be lucky to work with him.
A special thanks to Saira Shah and Tahir Shah. Both of them have done work of such courage and value. That they think these stories worthy of their time and support means the world to me.
The writer and musician Robert Leonard Reid read an early draft of these stories and kindly encouraged me in my labors. The magisterial Joe Crowley also read them, and his good opinion cheered me considerably. Christine Kelly, owner of the Sundance Bookstore in Reno, Nevada, keeps literary culture alive in the West, and I am but one writer who looks upon her with love and respect. One night by the fireplace in a ranch house in the Sierra Nevada my friends Richard Nevle, Deborah Levoy, and Sophie Nevle Levoy generously listened to some of these stories, and helped me to think through the madly complex issue of the title for so exotic a volume.
Elizabeth Dilly, la maravillosa, worked with me at every stage and with every detail of this book. It would not exist without her, and so is it justly dedicated to her.