The Tiger Flu

by Larissa Lai

  I had lots of generous feedback as well from fellow writers, editors, and friends who read various drafts. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the time and thought you gave The Tiger Flu: Ellen Pond, Rita Wong, Yukiko Toda, Meredith Quartermain, Patrick Crean, and Robert Majzels, who also came up with the title.

  I am especially grateful to Hiromi Goto, dear friend and editrix extraordinaire. Where have you been all my life? Thank you for your brilliant feedback and suggestions. This book would not be what it is without you.

  Special gratitude also to the wonderful Warren Cariou whose editorial support offered so many helpful insights in the realm of contemporary narrative ethics and beyond. I especially appreciated our conversation about oolichans and caplin.

  Thanks hugely too to the whip-smart Shirarose Wilensky at Arsenal Pulp Press for the copy edit that kept on giving. If there are any flaws in the book now, I have no one to blame but myself.

  Many thanks to Oliver McPartlin for the beautiful design, and to Cynara Geissler for publicity already done and publicity to come. Thank you to Robert Ballantyne for his work behind the scenes. I know how much thought and care goes into what you do.

  So much appreciation to Brian Lam for taking this book on with the incomparable professionalism, grace, and aplomb with which he always engages. Thank you for continuing to believe in me.

  Thanks also to many students and colleagues at both the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary who supported this work in small and large ways through conversation, commiseration, and other forms of moral support. Thank you to my writing community broadly—the many friends, colleagues, readers, and interlocutors whom I’ve met on various travels inner and outer. It’s not possible to name everyone, but your impact is felt nonetheless.

  Finally, loving thanks to my family Tyrone Lai, Yuen-Ting Lai, and Wendy Lai, and to my endlessly and generously supportive partner, Edward Parker, who puts up with the mania, panic, and mess on a daily basis, fixes everything, and who read not one draft but three. You’re okay, I guess.