For more than two decades, Nancy Paulsen has been the wonder behind my books. She’s read draft after draft, sent me research articles, pointed out my inconsistencies and repetition, told me what was fabulous about my writing and what “still needed a little work.” When I was bumming about my characters, she came over and made me and my family dinner and talked me through the hard stuff. For anyone who has ever wondered what an editor does—this is it. Well, this is my editor. Maybe other people aren’t so fortunate. I hope every writer gets this lucky one day.

The Trusted Reader-Friends

These are the people with whom you talk about what you’re working on. (You don’t talk to everyone, because if you’re talking about it, how are you writing it?) But sometimes you need to bounce something off some people. Sometimes you show your very new, very fragile writing to them and they go, “This is so exciting.” They read it with all its typos and half thoughts and clichés and they say, “Your writing is so great, just keep going.” They say, “This is going to be amazing.” And so you do keep going—knowing that you’re only at the beginning and that your friends are saying what you need to hear to keep you moving forward. Juliet, Toshi Reagon, Kwame Alexander, Jason Reynolds, Donald Douglas.

The Village

Here is where the peeps behind every book I’ve ever written or dreamed of writing live. They’re the ones who take your kids to dinner and study with them so you can write, gather around you, do their own changing-the-world work, break bread with you, vote with you, recycle with you, and sometimes just sit and talk and laugh with you. The Village is your air, your tribe, your strength. Jackson Leroi, Toshi G., Linda, Jana, Jane, Tayari, Tashawn, Kali, Min Jin, Lanita, Kaija, Ellery, Stephanie, Robyn, Karin . . . and everyone else—you know who you are.

And these are the people who help produce my books year after year—copyeditor Cindy Howle, designers Theresa Evangelista and Marikka Tamura, Sara LaFleur in editorial, and the late, great Wendy Pitts in production.

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