Mirage (Mirage #1)(77)

There is an endless string of people who kept my head straight during this process. Much love and gratitude to the Snek Pit: Anna Prendella, Ronan Sadler, and Isabel Kaufman, thank you for yelling with me daily. To Karen Chau and Alex Cauley, thank you for griping with me about translation and being awesome. To the Salt Mates, Ashley M. and Catherine B., y’all know what you did. To Amanda Shah and Pauline Heejin Kim, who listened to my fears patiently even when I began to repeat myself. To Nur, your biting sarcasm and mathematic wit powered me through so much of the last year. To all my Demons: Aja, Sassy, Meg, Max, Gray, Zach, Noelle, Annie, Tropie, Rawles, Anna, Lys, Rachna, Nicole, Shruthi, Carrie, Jordan, Zara, Michele, Ari, and Riley, thank you for listening and bearing through my all-caps yelling as I worked through this book.

To Veronica Roth and Courtney Summers I owe a special debt of gratitude. The best N7s a friend could ever ask for, and who bore me through post-drafting and read Mirage hot off the presses. To Sarah Enni, who’s been there from the start: your friendship and support has meant so much. To Tahereh Mafi, whose sage advice has guided me through many a career hurdle. To the Hags: Kody Keplinger, Laurie Devore, Samantha Mabry, Stephanie Kuehn, Stephanie Sinkhorn, Alexis Bass, Debra Driza, Kaitlin Ward, Kara Thomas, Kate Hart, Kristin Halbrook, Lindsey Culli, Amy Lukavics, Maurene Goo, and Michelle Krys, thank you seems like not enough.

And last, but certainly not least, to my dissertation committee: Jesse Oak Taylor, Charles LaPorte, and Juliet Shields. I am eternally indebted to you for your support as I went through exams and drafting, then revising, a novel, and for the intellectual challenges that enriched this book. To Jesse in particular: thank you for saying it’s okay to press pause on one thing so that I might pursue another.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Somaiya Daud is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington. A former bookseller in the children’s department at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC, Somaiya is passionate about Arabic poetry, the stars, and the Gothic novel. Mirage is her debut novel. You can sign up for email updates here.