How to give thanks for a book that was 30 years in the writing, going back to its initial inspiration in a small village in West Africa in 1993? During that long stretch of time I also wrote and published several other books, and I worry that I might be forgetting some of the crucial insights and support I received from many friends, colleagues, fellow writers, and editors during the various stages of my writing What the Dead Can Say.
So the following list of thanks is necessarily incomplete, but can be happily expanded:
Iryce Baron, John Blades, Liora Bresler, Robert Olen Butler, Mary Cappello, Christopher Cerf, Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, Paul Friedman, Douglas Glover, Janice Harrington, Robin Hemley, Oscar Hijuelos, Leanne Howe, David Jauss, Kokora Kouassi, Margot Livesey, Alejandro Lugo, Kate McCahill, Harry Miller, Michele Morano, Stephen O’Connor, Ladette Randolph, Andrew Samuels, Mimi Schwartz, Jodee Stanley, Bob Strauss, Geri Thoma, Charles Varela, Katherine Vaz, and Rui Zink.
Many thanks also to the editors of the following literary magazines, where early versions of some chapters from the novel first appeared: Crab Orchard Review, F Magazine, Gargoyle, Hunger Mountain, Ocean State Review, River Styx, and Western Humanities Review.
Author Unseen would also like to thank ALMA Communications for media mojo; Amie Cooper of the Actualizers for expertise in all things paper; Amy Fortunato for her uncanny design sense, whether in print or digital; Emily Goucher for under-the-hood digital magic; Emily K Mell for the subtle power of her evocative line drawings; and Paul Maria Schneggenburger for permission to use his wise and enigmatic photograph, "The Sleep of the Beloved, no. 52". Their enthusiastic design and artistic collaboration with my vision couldn’t have been more rewarding.
As always, my deepest thanks go to my children, Hannah and Nathaniel, now grown into remarkable adults; and to Alma, my forever partner in life and love.
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Origin of the epigraphs you will find throughout this novel:
Fernando Pessoa: from The Book of Disquiet, edited and translated by Richard Zenith.
Joy Harjo: from “A Map to the Next World,” in How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, 1975–2001.
Emily Dickinson: “A Death blow Is a Life blow to Some,” poem 816 in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson.
Tabish Khair: from the novel, Night of Happiness.
Kojo Laing: from the short story, “Vacancy for the post of Jesus Christ,” in Contemporary African Short Stories, edited by Chinua Achebe and C. L. Innes.
Jeanette Winterson: from the novel, Lighthousekeeping.