The Rise & Fall of the Scandamerican Domestic: Stories (23 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Several of these stories first appeared in the following publications: “Of Pigs and Children” (
New Delta Review
), “Check the Baby” (
Gulf Coast
), “In Lapland” (
Gettysburg Review
), “Local Accident” (
New World Writing
), “Scandamerican Domestic” (
Smokelong Quarterly
), “Direct Assault from South Sweden” (
New World Writing
), “Time in Norrmalmstorg” (
Laurel Review
), “When Our Son, 26, Brings Us His First Girlfriend” (
New South
), “O Sweet One in the Bluff” (
New World Writing
), “The Cook at Swedish Castle” (
Black Warrior Review
), “Tomtens” (
Fairy Tale Review
), “When Our Son, 36, Asks Us for What He Calls a Small Loan” (the
Collagist
), “Cabins” (
SubTropics
), “Scandamerican Pastoral” (
Gulf Coast
), and “Last Cottage” (
Cincinnati Review, Best American Mystery Stories 2011
).

I want to thank the editors of the literary journals that took a chance on my work. In particular, I want to thank the editors who really went out of their way to work with me on some of these stories in various stages: Frederick Barthelme, Matt Bell, Sean Bishop, Chris Chambers, Brock Clarke, Andrew Farkas, Michael Griffith, Tara Masih, Meg Pokrass, and Richard Sonnenmoser.

I am a living product of American academic creative writing programs, and I have therefore enjoyed the privilege of learning from and working with many really wonderful teachers. Thank you Padgett Powell, Nancy Reisman, David Leavitt, Brian Kiteley, Selah Saterstrom, and Laird Hunt. My first teacher of fiction is also the one I need to thank the
most thoroughly, because he has stayed with me year after year after year: Josh Russell, a prodigious friend, stunning writer, and staggeringly smart teacher.

The good people at Coffee House, who also took a risk on me. The first books I fell in love with were Coffee House Press books, and your invitation into this press is really a dream for which I am so grateful.

I want to thank my devoted and generous parents, my awesome sister, and my nutty and lovable extended family in Illinois.

And finally, of course, there's only one person in my life who has been with me from the first story in this book to the last: Molly, thank you. You are the smartest, sharpest, kindest, cutest, wisest person I know, and I am lucky I get to share a name and house and kids and bedsheets with you.

FUNDER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Coffee House Press is an independent, nonprofit literary publisher. Our books are made possible through the generous support of grants and gifts from many foundations, corporate giving programs, state and federal support, and through donations from individuals who believe in the transformational power of literature. Coffee House Press receives major operating support from Amazon, the Bush Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, from Target, and in part from a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the State's general fund and its arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008, and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation of Minnesota. Support for this title was received from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Coffee House also receives support from: several anonymous donors; Suzanne Allen; Elmer L. and Eleanor J. Andersen Foundation; Around Town Agency; Patricia Beithon; Bill Berkson; the Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation; the Buuck Family Foundation; Claire Casey; Jane Dalrymple-Hollo; Ruth Dayton; Dorsey & Whitney,
LLP
; Mary Ebert and Paul Stembler; Chris Fischbach and Katie Dublinski; Fredrikson & Byron,
P.A
.; Katie Freeman; Sally French; Jeffrey Hom; Carl and Heidi Horsch; Alex and Ada Katz; Stephen and Isabel Keating; Kenneth Kahn; the Kenneth Koch Literary Estate; Kathy and Dean Koutsky; the Lenfestey Family
Foundation; Sarah Lutman; Carol and Aaron Mack; Mary McDermid; Sjur Midness and Briar Andresen; the Nash Foundation; Peter and Jennifer Nelson; Rebecca Rand; the Rehael Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation; Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner,
P.A
.; Kiki Smith; Jeffrey Sugerman and Sarah Schultz; Nan Swid; Patricia Tilton; the Archie D. & Bertha H. Walker Foundation; Stu Wilson and Mel Barker; the Woessner Freeman Family Foundation; Margaret and Angus Wurtele; and many other generous individual donors.

To you and our many readers across the country, we send our thanks for your continuing support.

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The mission of Coffee House Press is to publish exciting, vital, and enduring authors of our time; to delight and inspire readers; to contribute to the cultural life of our community; and to enrich our literary heritage. By building on the best traditions of publishing and the book arts, we produce books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience.

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