St. Mary’s Sewanee, for the use of the Hermitage, where I wrote parts of this novel.
The University of the South, especially the amazing students with whom I’ve had the honor of working over the past eleven years (especially Annie Adams, Kilby Allen, Jessica Barber, Aaron Browning, Caroline Byrd, Liz Childers, Catherine Clifton, Sarah Cumming, Lily Davenport, Kat Dembergh, Ellen Doster, Norris Eppes, Daniel Fortner, Eli Gay, Anna Grishaw, Hallie Gladstone, Meg Hall, Becca Hannigan, Kelly Hines, Sarah Horton, Brandon Iracks-Edelin, Reed Jackson, Kate Jayroe, Sara Kachelman, Zoey Kortz, Robin Lee, Lara Lofdahl, Jacob Moore, Sarah Pinson, Chris Poole, Thomas Sanders, Charlotte Seaman-Huynh, Param Singh, Justin Smith, Leah Terry, Bea Troxel, Kathryn Willgus, Laney Wood, and Lena Yarbrough), and with special gratitude to the English Department, particularly Kelly Malone, Lauryl Tucker, and Elizabeth Grammer, for their mentorship and friendship.
My friends Leah Stewart, Matt O’Keefe, Sam Esquith, Cecily Parks, Isabel Galbraith, Lucy Corin, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Caki Wilkinson.
Ally Syler and Eliza Griffey, two of the most wonderful kids I know, for allowing me to use their names in this novel, and for their amazing parents and my best friends on the mountain, David and Heidi Syler, and Betsy Sandlin and Jason Griffey.
Finally and most emphatically:
Griff Fodder-Wing Wilson and Patch Halcomb Wilson, my sons, perfect little worlds.
Leigh Anne Couch, my cowriter, my best and truest love, every single good thing I have.