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xv Acknowledgments Quotations from: “Brown Skin Girl,” traditional Calypso Journal of an expedition to explore the course and termination of the Niger, with a narrative of a voyage down the river to its termination , by Richard and John Lander (London and New York, 1832) “Daffodils,” by William Wordsworth Sections of this book have appeared in the following journals and anthologies: The American Voice, Sinister Wisdom, Common Lives/Lesbian Lives, Ikon, Jo’s Girls, ed. Christian McEwen (Beacon Press, 1997); and Resurgent: New Writings by Women, ed. Camille Norton and Lou Robinson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992). Thanks to Gloria Anzaldúa, who opened the doors of writing for me; to the now defunct Cummington Community of the Arts, which gave me first a residency and then a job; to Joan Larkin for years of fabulous conversation and a vital lead; to Diane Cleaver, my agent, sadly dead now, who believed in this book and represented it even though it was unlikely ever to make her any xvi money. Thanks to the Reverend Rich Fournier for walking by my side through the valley of the shadow. And thanks to all the friends who have read and commented on this manuscript: Carol Potter, Dee Dee Niswonger, Dvora Cohen, Emerald O’Leary, Moira Gentry, to name only a few. For scanning the old, typed manuscript, everlasting gratitude to Maureen “Mickie” Conroy and, for lying on it whenever possible, exasperated love to Sido, Trouble, Ben, Sylvie, and Stevie. Finally, special thanks to Alexa Jaffurs, who read the manuscript between lambing and haying, researched the chronology of the Biafran war, and is my companion and my delight. A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s ...

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