I Am an Executioner (35 page)

I am deeply grateful to Jake Donham, Beth Ford, and Carrie Messenger, unstinting friends and brilliant readers who have improved all my stories; to Nicole Aragi, my agent, for always holding a true compass; and to Robin Desser, living proof that real editors exist. Heartfelt thanks also to Jordan Bass, Dev Benegal, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Christie Hauser, Michele Kong, Jennifer Kurdyla, Nitin Mukul, Meera Nair, Krupa Parikh, James Pate, Sarah Rothbard, Arun Venugopal, Anita Wadhwa, and others who have supported this book; as well as to the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Corporation of Yaddo, and the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University.

This collection is dedicated with love to my first authors, Lakshmy Parameswaran and P. G. Parameswaran, whose imagination and faith have been my good fortune; and to my brother, Ashok of the gracious heart.

Rajesh Parameswaran’s stories have appeared in
McSweeney’s
,
Granta
,
Zoetrope: All-Story
,
Five Chapters
, and
Fiction
. “The Strange Career of Dr. Raju Gopalarajan” was one of three stories for which
McSweeney’s
earned a National Magazine Award in 2007, and it was reprinted in
The Best American Magazine Writing
. He lives in New York City.