I am pleased to publicly thank the many people who supported my writing, across the country and through the years. I want to thank the editors of the magazines who originally published these stories in slightly different form:
Adirondack Review: “Kind Eyes”;
The American Scholar: “Out of Order”;
Bellow Literary Journal: “Test”;
Crossborder: “Unidentified Living Object”;
Dogwood: “A Proper Hunger”;
Gingko Tree Review: “The Mime”;
The Pinch: “Ready Set”;
Pindeldyboz: “Camp Redo”;
The Southern Review: “Complicated and Annoying Little Robot,” “Giant,” and “The OK End of Funny Town”;
Tahoma Literary Review: “An Exact Thing”;
Third Coast: “Gracie”;
Unlikely Stories: “Used Goods”;
Wag’s Revue: “Genie” and “Porcelain God.”
“Giant” was reprinted in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017).
“Porcelain God” and an excerpt of “Ready Set,” which originally appeared in POP!, are included in this collection courtesy of Stillhouse Press.
I am forever indebted to the professors in the English Department at Skidmore College and the MFA Program at the University of Arizona, especially Aurelie Sheehan, Elizabeth Evans, Greg Hrbek, Jason Brown, and Kathryn Davis. Many thanks to the writers at the UA workshop, especially Cara Adams, Donald Dunbar, Isaac Eldridge, Jamie Poissant, Lisa Ciccarello, and William Bert. Thank you to Peter Conners and the team at BOA for believing in this book. I am grateful to John Murray and Will MacLaughlin, who have been reading my stories from the get-go. Rachel Yoder, thank you for being my greatest ally in all this. Dave Polanzak and Henrietta Polanzak, your relentless encouragement sustains me. Steven Millhauser, thank you for giving me my writing life. And lastly, thank you, Alle, for your love and our life together.