Special thanks to the staff of Silver Sands Villas in Duncans, Trelawny, especially Tanesha, Kimesha, Miss Claudette, and Tracy-Ann, for your loving support and insight as I wrote this story; and also for the opportunity to be a part of a family. My heartfelt thanks always to the following cast of phenomenal people in alphabetical order: Alistair Scott, Brian Morton, Cheryl Head, Dahlia Campbell, Daniel Townsend, David Hollander, Dennis E. Norris II, Diana P. Miller, Diana Veiga, Dionne Jackson-Miller, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Donovan Rodriques, Joan Silber, Jessica Deliazard, June Frances Coleman, Karenn Cohen Jordan, Kate Schmier, Kathleen Hill, Keisha Phipps, Krystal Brown, Laura Diamond, Lorraine Correlley, Mary Morris, Melesia Senior, Michael A. Fanteboa, Michelle Y. Talbert, Nancy Diamond, Natalie Wittlin, Nelly Reifler, Patrick Wilson, Rafael Flores, Romaine McNeil, Sadeqa Johnson, Sanderia Faye, Sharon Gordon, Shayaa Muhammad, Sheri-Ann Cowie, Soraya Jean-Louis McElroy, Stephen O’Connor, Timothy Veit Jones, Tracy Chiles McGhee, and ZZ Packer.
Also, I will forever be grateful for Professor Duane Esposito, for you knowing my destiny before me. Tina Whyte, for being the first real writer that I know and who inspired me to write my own stories! Verdene Lee, Ken Glover, and the Wari House girls, for enriching my experience at Cornell University; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I wrote many a first draft and buried them; the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Program, for asylum. R. Erica Doyle, OyaBisi Id, Julia Fierro, and the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, for the courage to venture back into writing; and my Stuyvesant Writing Workshop students for being great teachers. Also, to the greats, Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Edwidge Danticat, Zora Neale Hurston, and Marlon James, who gave me permission.
I am grateful to my parents—Sharon Tucker-Gordon and Danville Dennis—who have instilled in me the importance of hard work; and to the rest of my family: Lewis “Louie” Benn, Juliet Jeter, Eugenia “Cooky” Benn, Joe Murray, David Watkins, Carol Horton, and Charles “Turkey” Benn, for your understanding and support.
And of course, my gratitude goes out to my beloved homeland, Jamaica, my muse and home of my grandmother Rowena “Merna” Hunter and my great-grandmother Addy—the woman who gave me the courage and freedom to write and live freely.
Finally, much gratitude to my amazing wife, reader, editor, listener, Emma Benn. Without you and your unconditional love, all this would not have been possible. Thank you so much for your patience and for putting up with me.