For this novel and its iterations over time, I am thankful for the sharp eyes and clear-headed comments of so many: Silas House, Heather Whitaker, Avery Caswell, Denton Loving, T.J. Sandella. Thank you for your advice, your votes of confidence, and your close reading. I owe much to other artists in my life, ones who know the power of friendship and the importance of supporting one another in our endeavors. I particularly thank my close women friends: Carlyle Poteat, Cindra Halm, Vicky Hayes, Gwendy Turnbull.
To all the good people at the University Press of Kentucky—they who have believed in this novel, labored over it with me in its editing—I offer my truest, most humble thanks.
Place has meant a great deal as this novel has evolved. Hindman and the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop continues to be a homeplace I come back to in person and in memory. Teaching semesters as Visiting Writer at Hollins University, Gettysburg College, and University of South Dakota made space for these pages. And I am grateful to Charles and Cornelia Saltzman, whose farm in Aspers, Pennsylvania, became a necessary retreat.
Thanks always to family, both my ancestors and those still near and dear.
Above all, I am thankful to my partner, Johnny Johns, with whom I share love and a home, a safe place where words can flourish.