Setting up this web page, I decided to photograph my favorite bookshelf, the one with books by friends and mentors. Since you can’t see all their names, I’ll write them here:

Ursula LeGuin, Tom Spanbauer, Jenefer Shute, and Rebecca Brown all taught me something vital about writing. In their presence, what had been closed in me opened, and words emerged.

Pramila Jayapal, Jennifer D. Munro, Donna Miscolta, Wendy Call, and Sasha Su-Ling Welland have all been members of my writing group at one time or another, and I saw many of the words on these pages in early drafts. I couldn’t write without their faith in me and in our larger project.

Dan Orozco and Nassim Assefi are just two of my many writer friends whose work inspires me. Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, and Sherman Alexie inspired me, too, and I’ve been privileged to hear them read their words out loud.

Finally, my father, James Green, set the tone early: writing is hard, but almost nothing is as satisfying as making a good sentence.