Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to the literature and writing faculties and others at The University of West Florida (James, Mary); The University of Alabama, Birmingham (Sena); Spalding University; Ole Miss and members of the Grisham writer-in-residence committee (thanks, Barry) and the Grisham family; The University of California, Irvine (thanks, Elizabeth); and The University of Wyoming. Thanks to the writers I’ve been privileged to know and work with in these places, for their good work and friendship. And to my family, for love and tolerance.

I’m grateful to the National Endowment of Arts for a fellowship in 2004. To the Taylor family for generous use of the Holmes house in 2003–5. To the Lannan Foundation for a residency in 2006. To the JW Foundation for a brief but crucial time in Tucson. Thank you to Meagan Ciesla for retyping some of these stories and others. To good friends in Seagrove Beach, Fairhope, Meridian, Oxford, Pensacola, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Boulder, Santa Fe, Phoenix, New York, Laramie, and elsewhere. For reading and responding, thank you to Jon, David, Beth, Rob, Kim, Joy, Cressida, Quentin, and especially Neela, a staunch and generous champion. To my agent, Peter Steinberg, undaunted. To everyone at W. W. Norton, particularly to Bill Rusin, Denise Scarfi, and Rebecca Carlisle for generous and goodhearted diligence and care. And especially to my editor, Alane Salierno Mason, still and always the best. Thank you most to Nell, for love and loyalty beyond what I could imagine.