The poet in “Vagina Dentata” is Bernadette Mayer. The poet in “How I Like It” is Eleanor Lerman. The poet in “Loafing Along Death Valley Trails” is Andrew Hudgins. The poet in “Your Misery Was Nothing” is Katie Peterson. Thanks to the following people for thinking with me: Anne Carson, William Caruthers, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Walton Ford, Daniel Gumbiner, Corbin Harney, Jenny Offill, Eunice Silva, Guillermo Soledad, Kim Stringfellow, Michael Ursell, Florence Vega, Brad Watson, E. B. White, and my parents, Paul and Martha Watkins. Thank you, Amargosa River, American Peace Test, Nevada Desert Experience, Basin and Range Watch, China Ranch, Villa Anita, the Shoshone Museum, and the Crowbar.
Thank you to Miriam Shearing and the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Lannan Foundation, the Michener Center, the University of California, Irvine, the Writing Seminars at Bennington College, Tin House, Writing by Writers Tomales Bay, and the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. Thank you, Rebecca Saletan, Nicole Aragi, and John Freeman. Thank you to my family, friends, editors, agents, colleagues, students, neighbors, plants, and the dead. Thank you, reader.
Thank you, Western Shoshone Nation, for stopping the bombs. Thank you, Newe Sogobia, for keeping us though we continue to hurt you.
Thank you, Esmé Ofelia, for making everything better.