For their unfailing support, their tireless curiosity and pride, and their myriad familial ministrations, I offer my appreciation to my extended family on every side—the various branches of Moses, Kamiya, and Alford clans, in particular Bob Alford, David Alford, Jonathan Alford, Season Jensen, Joe and Joanne Kamiya, Mark Kamiya, Adele Moses, Bill Moses and Tish Lee, Goldie Moses, John and Marina Moses, Nancy Moses, Ramona Pedersen, Kathleen and Fred Wagner, and Dorothy Walker.

More than thanks are due to the stalwart friends who shored me up as I wrote, offering me professional acuity, well-timed distraction, nourishment of every vital kind, and childcare: Galia Baron, Alexandra Berven, Tom Centolella, Karen Clark, Marni Corbett, Daphne de Marneffe, Jodi Douglass, Jaune Evans, Farhad Farzeneh, Robert Frumkin, Charo Gonzalez, Kelly Campbell Hinshaw, Stephen Hinshaw, Beth Kephart, Jeanie Kim, Yun Kim, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Sharron Lannan Korybut, Ed Lopez, Ruth Lopez, Christina Myers, Sultan Pepper, Camille Peri, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Susan Straight, and Katherine Whitney.

Diane Middlebrook’s warm exuberance, camaraderie, and scholarship have defied the notion of writing as a solitary endeavor. I am forever indebted to our unique partnership.

I thank Ellen Levine for her shrewd mind and her enormous heart, evident always, and her relentless belief in this book and in me. I am grateful for the work of the Ellen Levine Literary Agency on Wintering’s behalf; an unexpected phone call from Diana Finch or Allyson Giard or Louise Quayle has been better than Christmas.

I was immensely lucky to have a team of astute, intuitive champions behind the publication of Wintering. In addition to Ellen Levine and her staff, I want to offer my enduring appreciation to Diane Higgins of St. Martin’s Press and Carole Welch of Sceptre, both perceptive, discerning editors with an amazing capacity for subtle and harmonious observations. Their wholehearted trust in me and complete faith in Wintering has been gratifying beyond words. Thank you, also, to Nichole Argyres and Amber Burlinson for their gracious, reliable, and eruditè stewardship of the vital details.

I’d like to acknowledge the generosity of my children, Zachary Paris Tomlinson and Celeste Erice Kamiya, not just for sharing me with Sylvia Plath through four school years but also for allowing me to plumb their babyhoods for material.

No one has done more in support of this book than my husband, Gary Kamiya: first among my editors, and unmatched as an insightful critic. My heartfelt thanks for his unwavering sustenance, his love, and his tender care.

Finally, I want to remember William John Moses (1936–1994), Arlen J. Hansen (1936–1993), and Wendy Alford Corpening (1940–2001)—my dad, my guide, my daffodil. Thank you for every minute.