Elegies for the Brokenhearted (30 page)

I am grateful to the following people for their friendship: Grace Patenaude (your loveliness increases…), Bart Patenaude, John and Doreen Hodgen, Janice and John Lucena, Lillian St. Onge, Michael Holko, Jenni Frangos, Marly Swick, Michelle Boisseau, Kim Palmer, Leslie Koffler, Clancy and Rebecca Martin, Christine Sneed, Aisha Ginwalla, John Hildebidle, Tony Ardizzone, and Jenny Greene.

I would also like to thank the people who encouraged this book in its early stages: Jill Meyers and Stacey Swann at
American Short Fiction
, Jeanne Leiby at
The Southern Review
, Kit Ward, and all at W. W. Norton & Company, especially my editor, Amy Cherry, Denise Scarfi, and the incomparable Carol Houck Smith.