The Shortest Way Home
Page 27
Acknowledgments
If you’ve been writing and trying to publish a book for more than ten years, there are a lot of people to thank. To say it takes a village to publish a book is an understatement. For me, it’s taken almost an entire country. I feel so lucky to have encountered so many talented and supportive people along the way.
To Lauren Grodstein and everyone in our little writing class all those years ago in Brooklyn. Those times in the early days were when I really started feeling like a writer.
To my friends from “writing camp,” Helen Wan and Kera Yonker, and to Soren Palmer, who pointed me toward UNCW. I will be forever grateful for you.
To the amazing group of writers and friends I made in North Carolina at UNCW—first to Clyde Edgerton, who took me under his wing and read so many of my failed attempts at novels but was supportive and didn’t mock me too much. To Robert Siegel, Karen Bender, Wendy Brenner, Rebecca Lee, David Gessner, Megan Hubbard, Lisa Bertini, you are my heroes. Thank you for everything. To Joel Moore, Bill Carty, Kat Anderson, Melissa Robon, Ashley Hudson, Ashley Talley, Sumanth Prabhaker, Hannah Abrams, and Emily Smith. God, we had fun. Can we all live together again one day?
To the inimitable Haven Kimmel, who gave me eleven pages of single-spaced notes on one of those failed novels. I did everything that you said, Haven, and it made me a better writer. You are so generous and wise.
To Kate Lee, who believed in me first. You gave me hope. Thank you.
To Peter Steinberg, who made it all happen.
To Allison Hunter, you have swooped in and made me better in every way. And thanks to Clare Mao for being such a careful and sensitive reader.
To Elin Hilderbrand, who is just the most amazing Grand Dame of all time. I adore you.
To Rumaan Alam, for your generosity and for always making me laugh when I log on to Twitter.
To Cynthia d’Aprix Sweeney, you are a genius, thank you for your generosity, friendship, and for liking my book.
To Lexi Beach and Quincy Wags, all my love to you and the Astoria Bookshop. You’re changing the world one book and dog kiss at a time.
To my colleagues at Ecco, the best backseat drivers in the game. Thank you to Megan Lynch, Zack Wagman, Denise Oswald, Allison Saltzman, and Sara Wood. And to Dan Halpern, I learn something amazing about writing, publishing, food, or just life from you every day. I feel so honored to work with you. To my amazing marketing and publicity team: Meghan Deans, Sonya Cheuse, Ashley Garland, Martin Wilson, James Faccinto, Bridget Read, and Ashlyn Edwards.
To everyone at Dutton, but especially Maya Ziv for believing in me and my book. You made my dreams come true and I will never stop appreciating it. To Maddy Newquist, who helped with so many things. To my incredible publicity team, Jamie Knapp, Becky Odell, and Amanda Walker. To my divine marketer Kayleigh George, your highlighted lists bring me so much joy.
To Christine Ball, John Parsley, LeeAnn Pemberton, Susan Schwartz, Carrie Swetonic, Cassie Garruzzo, and Hannah Dragone. To Eileen Chetti, who caught all the mistakes I made. I also must acknowledge the editorial input of Nina Tavani, an excellent editor and artist.
So many other people have helped along the way as well, talking writing, publishing, books, and sometimes (shockingly) about other things too: Heather Fain, Josh Kendall, Judy Clain, Lee Boudreaux, Tracy Behar, Reagan Arthur, Renee Daley, Roy Gabay, Marcia Rooney, Kathleen Perkins, Michele Karas, Susan Wanklyn, Sabrina Callahan, Lisa Erickson, Pam Brown, Brian Grogan, Andy LeCount, Juliette Shapland, Jen Doll, and Alex Rice, who boosted my confidence when it was very low!
To M. J. Rose, who has talked me through this crazy ride for so many years. Thank you for all of your support and all of the lunches!
My dearest book mavens, Maris Kreizman and Rachel Fershleiser: you are geniuses at spreading the love about books and I so admire you and feel lucky to call you my friends.
My best friend, Megan Heuer, we have been through so much together. Thank you for always being there for me and listening to me complain. To Alafair Burke for being my soul twin and for providing me with a beautiful place to write in and the wine to drink while we did it. To Natalie Sandoval, I’m so glad our dogs brought us together. There’s nothing better than a neighborhood friend, even though now our neighborhoods are a country apart. To Melissa Kuzma, longtime book-sharer and friend. To my dear sister, Beth Parker, and Luke Epplin, you’ve taken care of me (and Leo!) in so many ways. I love our little trips and now our writing retreats. You make me think and get me to explore. Thank you! To my uncle Jake, who has always been there for me. To Ben Olson, you make life better every day. To my parents, Elaine and David Parker, who raised me to love reading and writing and have tolerated me through all of my writing phases. And even though my dog, Leopold Bloom, can’t really read, he’s good at pretending. He’s helped me write this book in so many ways—from couch companion to travel companion—the quote “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend, inside of a dog it’s too dark to read” couldn’t be more true.
And to you, dear reader! If you are reading this, you have read my book all the way to the end. How can I even begin to thank you? As a reader and a publisher, my whole life has been devoted to bringing books into the world and none of it would happen without you. Thank you for reading and sharing books and loving words.
About the Author
Miriam Parker is the associate publisher of Ecco. She has an MFA from UNC Wilmington and a BA from Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn with her dog, Leopold Bloom.
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