Anthropologies: A Family Memoir

Acknowledgments

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Acknowledgments I began writing this book when both my mother and my mother-inlaw were failing. They were both wonderful storytellers and keepers of family histories and so I had been listening to these stories for years, never dreaming I would ever shape them into a book or even that they would become a well out of which I could draw other memories. Their stories are, of course, filtered through my own consciousness, and so others may remember differently; the book is also full of stories of other people, as each of our lives, I believe, is composed of a web of interrelationships. Gathering and distilling these memories was a pleasure, almost effortless at times; the difficulty came in arranging and shaping them into a larger narrative. For their generosity as readers, and for support in sustaining the project , I owe special thanks to many good friends: to Barbara Cully, who has been a muse for this project from the beginning; to Laura Berry and Christiane Buuck, who encouraged early versions; to Karen Brennan and Polly Koch, who gave me brilliant suggestions right when I needed them; and to Susan Roberts and Aisha Sabatini Sloan, who acted as first responders and sustained my confidence in the writing. To Fernando, not only for being a constant reader and good storyteller , but also for allowing me to tell his stories as I saw them, and to Michael and Kathryn for allowing me to weave the stories of their lives into my own. To Kathryn, for her photographs. I also owe thanks to Joseph Parsons and Carl H. Klaus at University of Iowa Press for seeing the promise in the manuscript and for their careful reading and thoughtful guidance. To Charlotte Wright, Emily Burker, Jenny Bennett, and all the others who transformed the manuscript into a book. And, finally, to Third Coast for publishing my essay 172 Acknowledgments “Susan and the Zunis,” and, in doing so, bringing my work to Joe’s attention. Parts of this manuscript have been previously published, although in altered form or in earlier versions, in the following journals and I would like to thank them. As “Excerpts from Anthropologies” in: Cue: A Journal of Prose Poetry, vol. 3.1 (Winter 2006); Thin Air (Fall 2008); Seattle Review, vol. 2.1 ( January 2009); Back Stage Live website (Summer 2010). As passages in longer essays in: “Clarity,” Cimarron Review (Winter 2009); “Days of the Dead” Sonora Review (Spring 2011); “Notes from Prague,” Nimrod (Spring 2011); “Shelter,” North American Review (Fall 2010). Finally, I would like to thank the University of Arizona Provost’s Author Support Fund for its support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sightlinebooks The Iowa Series in Literary Nonfiction The Men in My Country marilyn abildskov Shadow Girl: A Memoir of Attachment deb abramson Anthropologies: A Family Memoir beth alvarado Embalming Mom: Essays in Life janet burroway Family Bible melissa j. delbridge Dream Not of Other Worlds: Teaching in a Segregated Elementary School, 1970 huston diehl Fauna and Flora, Earth and Sky: Brushes with Nature’s Wisdom trudy dittmar Little Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties jeffrey hammond In Defense of Nature john hay Letters to Kate: Life after Life carl h. klaus The Great Chain of Life joseph wood krutch Essays of Elia charles lamb The Body of Brooklyn david lazar In Earshot of Water: Notes from the Columbia Plateau paul lindholdt No Such Country: Essays toward Home elmar lueth Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain michele morano Currency of the Heart: A Year of Investing, Death, Work, and Coins donald r. nichols Return to Warden’s Grove: Science, Desire, and the Lives of Sparrows christopher norment Oppenheimer Is Watching Me: A Memoir jeff porter Great Expectation: A Father’s Diary dan roche Confessions of a Left-Handed Man: An Artist’s Memoir peter selgin The Harvard Black Rock Forest george w. s. trow ...