Revival Season - Monica West (10 ebook reader .TXT) 📗

into what it has become. Peter Ho Davies, you workshopped the first chapter in Napa and encouraged me to think about getting my MFA. The trajectory of my life changed after that week, and I’m forever indebted to you for your critical feedback, careful reading, and generosity through the years. In July 2014, my week in Taos as a Kimbilio Fellow came at a time when I needed solitude and community to turn this book into something more tangible. David Haynes, your vision for this community, along with your keen insight and wisdom during that week and beyond, helped this book in immeasurable ways. Sam Chang, before I attended Iowa, I was in your workshop at Napa in 2014. I was grateful for your insightful feedback and wise mentorship then, and I am even more grateful now after having had the opportunity to spend two years at Iowa with you. Thank you for the ways that you have changed this book and my life.

I was the beneficiary of incredible teaching at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Paul Harding, you were the first person to read an early draft of Revival Season. From that moment forward, you have believed in the possibilities of this book and in my ability to write it. Thank you for your belief in me and in the story I had to tell. Margot Livesey, you are the most generous and gracious person I have ever met. You have loved and believed in Miriam, always pushing me to make changes to the story to make her come alive. Miriam is better because of you—this book is better because of you—and I am better for having known you. Allan Gurganus, when you came to Iowa in the fall of 2016 and workshopped the first chapter of Revival Season, I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Thank you for your generous guidance and wise feedback about those early pages that stayed with me through each revision of the book. Ayana Mathis, you have been an inspiration from the first moment that I was in your seminar, and I am so grateful that I ended my two years in Iowa with you at the helm of my workshop. Your lessons about the “aboutness” of my fiction and your urging to make my characters “be mean to one another” still resonate with me and make me a better writer. Finally, my time at Iowa would not have been nearly as enriching without Connie Brothers, Deb West, and Jan Zenisek. You are the heartbeat of the Workshop; thank you for making my time there so fruitful.

In addition to being taught by incredible writers, I was also fortunate enough to find my people in Iowa—people who were my social lifeline in Iowa City as well as wonderful readers for my fiction. Jade Jones, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Will Shih, Regina Porter, Grayson Morley, Dawnie Walton, Afabwaje Kurian, Melissa Mogollon, Tameka Cage Conley, Derek Nnuro, Christina Cooke, and Jamel Brinkley: I am grateful for your friendship, support, and inspiration. You are amazing writers and incredible people; I’m honored to know you.

Thank you to the Rona Jaffe Foundation for giving me the financial support to focus on this novel while at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Thank you also to Hedgebrook for giving me the time, space, and community to write in Whidbey Island.

Novels are conceived and written in seclusion, but they are nurtured in community; I have had the best communities surrounding me during the nine years that I’ve been writing Revival Season. Gabi Ryan, I’ll never forget the conversation in your backyard when you pushed me to pursue my MFA. I am beyond grateful for your friendship and the way you have celebrated me all along the way. Bill Ryan, thank you for your friendship and for your time explaining all of my contracts. LaKimbre Brown, my travel buddy and amazing friend, this book has been with you in so many places across the globe. Thank you for always supporting my dream to become a novelist.

I am grateful for the love and support of my former school community at the Park School of Baltimore. In addition, to my past and present colleagues in the English department and at the rest of Lick-Wilmerding High School, I am so proud of your amazing work and am grateful to change lives with you every day. Thank you for your support of me and the book. I have also had the opportunity to find an amazing community of people who started out as colleagues and later became close friends. To Linnea Ogden and Josie Halpern-Finnerty, thank you for the firsts: you were two of the first readers of this book, and you were also the first to celebrate with me when I sold it. To Jennifer Selvin and Eric Guthertz, thank you for giving me feedback on draft after draft, and thank you for celebrating each milestone with me along the way. This journey has been sweeter because I’ve been able to share it with you. Finally, I can’t believe that I was fortunate enough to find amazing friends where I worked: Jackie Spivey, Christine Godinez Jackson, Melissa Nagar, Cristal Ogletree, Rebecca Hong, Oscar King, Nate Lundy, and Michecia Jones—thank you for your support and love during this journey.

Over sixteen years of teaching in Phoenix, Baltimore, Iowa City, and San Francisco, I have had the opportunity to spend life with over a thousand young people who inspire me every single day. Although I was technically your teacher, you have taught me more life lessons than I could have ever imparted to you. It has been the biggest privilege of my life to be called your teacher.

To my family at the Movement, I have felt completely known and loved here; thank you for supporting me, giving me a safe place to be known, and helping me grow deeper in my faith. To my Wednesday women: Alicia Jay, Briana Clarke, Junia Kim, Debra White, Nadia Tsado, Divine and Praise Adesida, Chika Egbe, Lydia