The School for Good Mothers(105)
Friends who generously read the entire manuscript or parts: Naomi Jackson, Annie Liontas, Sarah Marshall, Lizzy Seitel, Chaney Kwak, Sean Casey, and Lindsay Sproul. Special thanks to Lydia Conklin and Hilary Leichter for reading and cheering at all stages.
For life-changing gifts of time, space, and financial support: the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Anderson Center, the Jentel Foundation, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Special thanks to the Ragdale Foundation for first taking a chance on me in 2007.
The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference has meant so much to me. This project would have remained a complicated short story if not for a crucial push from Percival Everett. Thank you, Percival, for seeing a novel within the pages I submitted for your workshop. To Lan Samantha Chang and Helena María Viramontes, for excellent advice and big dreams. To Michael Collier, Jennifer Grotz, and Noreen Cargill, for the early vote of confidence.
My teachers at Brown and Columbia: Robert Coover, Robert Arellano, Ben Marcus, Rebecca Curtis, Victor LaValle, David Ebershoff (joy and wonder!), Sam Lipsyte, Stacey D’Erasmo, and Gary Shteyngart. Thank you for teaching me about craft, literature, and perseverance. I wrote my first stories in Jane Unrue’s beginning fiction workshop at Brown in 1997. Thank you, Jane, for setting me on this path.
Thomas Ross and Rob Spillman at Tin House, Michael Koch at Epoch, and their colleagues, for publishing my first stories.
My Publishers Weekly family, for the opportunity to learn about the industry while working with the nicest bookworms imaginable.
Beowulf Sheehan, for your kindness and artistry.
Carmen Maria Machado; Diane Cook (again); Robert Jones, Jr.; Leni Zumas; and Liz Moore for your words.
Erin Hadley, for emotional support and key backstory. Erin O’Brien, Brieanna Wheeland, Samuel Loren, and Bridget Sullivan, for advice about family court and pediatric medicine.
The journalists and scholars whose work influenced the development of this fictional world in tangible and intangible ways. From the New Yorker, “Where Is Your Mother?” by Rachel Aviv and “The Talking Cure” by Margaret Talbot sparked early interest. Ms. Talbot’s article also inspired the dolls’ word counters and introduced me to motherese. Highlights of additional reading include: “Foster Care as Punishment: The New Reality of ‘Jane Crow’?” by Stephanie Clifford and Jessica Silver-Greenberg in The New York Times; What’s Wrong with Children’s Rights by Martin Guggenheim; Nobody’s Children by Elizabeth Bartholet; Beyond the Best Interests of the Child by Joseph Goldstein, Anna Freud, and Albert J. Solnit; Small Animals by Kim Brooks; To the End of June by Cris Beam; Perfect Madness by Judith Warner; All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior.
The teachers and staff of the Children’s Community School of West Philadelphia and my daughter’s loving nannies—Pica, Alex, Angel, Madeleine, Daniella, and Teacher Alex—whose hard work allowed me to finish this book.
My cherished friend, Bridget Potter, at whose idyllic Log House I began writing Frida’s story in February 2014.
Friends who listened and encouraged: Sara Faye Green, Emma Copley Eisenberg, Jamey Hatley, Meghan Dunn, Crystal Hana Kim, Vanessa Hartmann, Steven Kleinman, Gabrielle Mandel, Shane Scott, Rui Dong-Scott, CLAW and GPP comrades, my Brooklyn writing group, residency pals, and the 2013–2015 Bread Loaf waiters and social staff. The late Jane Juska. Dorit Avganim, Ellen Moscoe, and Jordan Foley, my West Philly mom crew. Muriel Jean-Jacques, Kristin Awsumb Liu, Maya Bradstreet, Nellie Hermann, and Jenny Tromski, believers for over two decades.
My godmother Joyce Fecske, and the Chan, Soong, Wang, Kao, Diller, Hodges, and Sethbhakdi families, thank you for your love and support. My beloved sister, Audrey Chan, and brother-in-law, Jason Pierre, for solidarity and Chan factory steam. To the loving memory of my grandparents, especially my grandmothers, Chin-Li Soong and Soolsin Chan-Ling.
My parents, James and Susy Chan, for boundless love, a childhood full of books and art, patience, generosity, devoted parenting and grandparenting, and your good example. I cannot ever thank you enough for all you’ve done to make this book, my writing, and my family possible. Thank you for always believing in me.
My husband, Adam Diller, for your love and care and heavy lifting, for this happiness, our family, and our bird. I’m able to write because of the life we’ve made together.
My daughter, Lulu. When you were three and a half, you asked me to include your name in my book. Here it is. I love being your mother and I will try to be good.