A gigantic thank-you to Julie Barer, the best agent on earth (and a great editor, too). Another enormous one to Amy Einhorn, a dream editor and publisher. And to everyone at Amy Einhorn Books and Putnam.
Without the careful reading of Nick Dybek and Brad Liening, this book wouldn’t be what it is. Tarik Karam was his usual bundle of energy and unwavering support. Thanks to Alex Albright, my earliest fan. And to Denis Hildreth, who let me write a play when I was eighteen. Thanks to Dick Cohn for getting me into a dome. And Blair Wolfram for building so many. And thanks to all my old bandmates, who helped me learn to play unlistenable songs on the guitar when I was young and angry.
Thank you to Macalester College, where I teach with wonderful colleagues and amazing students.
It’s impossible to thank my family enough. Kathy Bognanni, thanks for bringing home half the collection of your library for me over the years. Sal Bognanni, thank you for your love of literature and your contagious sense of humor. Mark, thanks for reading my fiction when you were supposed to be studying. And thank you to the rest of my family, the Bognannis and the Rhynas clan, for all the love and encouragement from day one.
Finally, to Junita, I suspect you know by now that I write primarily to make you smile. Thank you for reading every draft, every change, every typo. Without you, this novel wouldn’t exist. And neither would my confidence to write.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Bognanni is a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was awarded a teaching/writing fellowship for his work. His short fiction and humor pieces have appeared in
Gulf Coast
,
The Bellingham Review
, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He is a 2008 Pushcart nominee, and his short story “The Body Eternal” was chosen by Stephen King as one of the “100 Most Distinguished Stories of 2006” in
Best American Short Stories.
He is currently a visiting instructor of creative writing at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He once played in a terrible high-school punk band.