The Freedom Maze (31 page)

N. K. Jemisin, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Nisi Shawl, K. Tempest Bradford, and Nalo Hopkinson were kind enough to discuss white privilege, class and race, cultural appropriation, and Writing the Other with me, and to read the manuscript for howlers. Helen and Tim Atkinson kindly lent me their house as a retreat when I wrote my last draft. Doselle Young spent hours with me on Skype, working out the frame story. Donnard Sturgis (aka Sophie’s godfather) has answered many questions about Voudon, Yemaya, and Papa Legba. Silvana Siddali, Associate Professor of American History at St. Louis University, helped me with details of antebellum politics, fashion, and culture. Insofar as
The Freedom Maze
is accurate, it’s due to all of them. Any mistakes and glitches, of course, are entirely my own work.

Great thanks are due to Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant of Big Mouth House. They read this book as friends and writing-group members and approached me, years later, as editors and publishers. I am more grateful than I can say for their faith in me and for giving Sophie and her friends a chance to tell their story to a wider audience.

Thanks, too, to Jane Yolen (aka Sophie’s godmother) who encouraged me to write the book in the first place.

Finally, I thank Ellen Kushner, partner of my joys and sorrows. She drove around Southern Louisiana with me, wandering through cane fields, peering in the windows of ruined slave cabins and moldering plantation houses, going through envelopes of yellowing clippings from 19th century newspapers, and visiting endless plantations and museums. She listened to me agonize over the characters, the plot, the setting, the pacing, and the style of this book, and read it almost as many times as I did. Without her support — and the occasional stern pep talk — I doubt I would have finished it.

was born in Japan and raised in New York City but spent vacations with relatives in Texas, Louisiana, and South Carolina. With a PhD in Renaissance studies, she proceeded to teach until she realized she’d rather edit and write instead. But retaining her love of history, she has set novels and short stories for children and adults in many times and places. Her work has appeared most recently in the young adult anthologies
The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People; Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories;
and
Teeth: Vampire Tales.
Her novels for younger readers are
Changeling
and
The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen.
Delia Sherman enjoys teaching writing workshops, including at the Hollins University Master’s Degree Program in Children’s Literature. She lives in New York City but travels at the drop of a hat.