Origins of the Universe and What It All Means (25 page)

 

Acknowledgments

 

This book could not have been written without the support and guidance of a great many friends, family, colleagues, and editors.

Love and gratitude to my husband, Karl Schoettler, for his support, patience, awesome diagrams, and many (oh, so many) pep talks; and thank you to my family, Bruce Firstman, Aranga Firstman, David and Penny Firstman, Tonya Graham, Stephanie Dethlefs, Peggy Schoettler and the whole Schoettler clan; and to my friends near and far. You cheered me on and celebrated each small step along the way.

I owe a debt of gratitude to all the editors and staff at the magazines where parts of this manuscript were first published as standalone essays, with extra special thanks to Stephanie G'Schwind and Karen Tellalian.

I am lucky to have worked with dynamite professors and incredible MFA colleagues at CSU Fresno—a thousand thank-yous to John Hales, who put in an unbelievable amount of work giving me insightful feedback and asking just the right questions (the Socrates of thesis chairing) throughout the drafting process... John, I can't thank you enough; to Steven Church, the best model and advocate a writer and student could have; to my other professors, Bo Wang, Linnea Alexander, Alex Espinoza, and Randa Jarrar; to Connie Hales and Tim Skeen for coordinating the whole MFA shebang; to all of my workshop colleagues; and for all the brilliant conversations and think-aloud sessions, a heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Liza Butler.

Thanks to many amazing writers who have helped with this book in one way or another—Lee Montgomery, Charles D'Ambrosio, Nick Flynn, David Shields, Brenda Miller, Sara J. Henry, Ashley Wells, Jeffery Gleaves, J. J. Anselmi, Shane Velez, Andrea Mele, Brenda Rankin Venezia, Laura Musselman-Dakin, Yenny Rose, Niki Lassen, Erin Alvarez, Sally Vogl, Phyllis Brotherton, Melanie Weger Kachadoorian, Jackie Heffron Williams, Jamie Barker, Irene Morse, Debby Goehring, Diana Carson, Joni Norby, Nancy Holley, Christopher Scott Wyatt, Erin Lynn Cook, Ethan Chatagnier, Jim Schmidt, Karen Stefano, Ruth Gila Berger, Kimberly Dark, Renée D'Aoust, Jennifer Bowen Hicks, Inara Verzemnieks; and the many good people at CSU Summer Arts, Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, Tin House Writer's Workshop, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.

A special shout-out to the entire Dzanc team, especially Michelle Dotter, Guy Intoci, Dawn Raffel, Steven Seighman, Steve Gillis, Dan Wickett, and Michael Seidlinger—thanks for bringing this book to life.

It really does take a village.