I would have been lost at sea after my MFA program without the amazing community of writers, teachers, and students at GrubStreet, the literary arts nonprofit in Boston where I taught fiction and worked on staff for nearly a decade. Thanks, especially, to Christopher Castellani, who has become a mentor over the years, as well as a great friend. Thanks also to Eve Bridburg, whose belief in me and encouragement of my career have been invaluable. And thanks to all my friends from the staff, current and former, whom I love like family—Sonya Larson and Whitney Scharer (again), Alison Murphy, Sean Van Deuren, Rowan Beaird, Sarah Colwill-Brown, Jonathan Escoffery, Dariel Suarez, Lauren Rheaume, and Ian Jude Chio—and to my fellow instructors, who have taught me so much, among them: Alysia Abbott, Howard Axelrod, Jenna Blum, Lisa Borders, Michelle Hoover, Ron MacLean, Ethan Gilsdorf, and many, many more than I can name here, as well as the Grub-adjacent Ryan Scharer, whose home, with Whitney, has been the scene of many sloppy cocktail nights and insufferable discussions of craft. And finally, thank you to all my students at GrubStreet over the years, who inspired me every week and made me a sharper writer and a better person.

I’m deeply indebted to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, which changed my writing life and broadened my horizons. Thanks to Michael Collier and Jennifer Grotz, and especially to the calm presence of Noreen Cargill, whom I was fortunate enough to work with in the back office for a couple of years. Thanks also to Mike Scalise and Cara Blue Adams, my beloved head waiters, and to all my fellow waiters of 2011.

Thanks as well to the Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop, the Vermont Studio Center, and the St. Botolph Club Foundation—organizations that each gave me support and encouragement when I needed it—and to Emerson College, for my MFA, and to the New School, where I took my first writing workshops.