The Lowering Days
Page 26
Acknowledgments
Little we do is done alone. Writing a novel is no different.
First, I’d like to thank my wife, Heather, for her love, her support, and her intelligence. Through the years, no one read this book with greater heart or insight, and this book, much like my life, is so much stronger because of your presence.
To my daughter, Aloma, thank you for your miraculous ability to deepen my world each day. There’s nothing as special to me as being your dad. And there’s perhaps no greater gift to a writer than becoming a parent.
The author Linda Hogan wrote, “Walking. I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” To my ancestors, thank you for that love, for the ways you made a path before me, and for the ways you have stayed with me, bringing strength, belief, and stories.
Thank you to my agent, Jonah Straus, for your unwavering faith in this novel. Your attention, insight, and feedback strengthened this work with every revision. And thank you to Alec McDonald, as well, for the many hours spent working on this novel.
Thank you to Gail Winston at HarperCollins for being such a tremendous editor and advocate. And many thanks to Doug Jones, Alicia Tan, Kyle O’Brien, Milan Bozic, and the rest of the wonderful team at HarperCollins who worked so hard on this book.
For their help with certain elements of the book, I’d like to thank Gabe Paul of the Penobscot Nation and Conor Quinn of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Southern Maine for their generous assistance in helping me better understand the Penobscot language; Randall Williams, who patiently helped me understand all things aviation-related; and Donald Soctomah of the Passamaquoddy tribe. I’d also like to thank the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the MacDowell Colony for the gifts of space, time, and funding. And Kelsey Sullivan for his generosity in letting me occasionally escape to his cabin at Stone Meadow.
Thank you to my teachers and mentors: Marilynne Robinson, Michelle Huneven, Lan Samantha Chang, Alexander Chee, and Kevin Brockmeier. And especially to Dog Wallace and Ellen McQuiston, who changed my world many years ago at a tiny college in Waterville, Maine, by showing me just how powerful writing could be.
Thank you to Bryan Castille, Ashley Davidson, and Christa Fraser for being such amazing readers of my work through the years, and even better friends. To Gary Polhemus and Amos Hausman-Rogers, for the music, the joy, and the faith in continuing to create. And to Mark Brandhorst and Sarah Shepley for always feeling like home. Your friendship helped keep many seeds of this story alive for many years.
To my sister, Jennifer Brown, thank you for being there through it all, from our little years to the not-so-little years. Thank you to Sue Newton, Susan Hooper, and David Stark for bringing your wisdom, humor, and love into my life. Finally, I’d like to thank my parents for teaching me when to be patient and when to fight, two unsung traits in life and novel writing, and for the steady love that never ends.
About the Author
Gregory Brown grew up along Penobscot Bay. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he is the recipient of scholarships and fellowships from MacDowell and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He lives in Maine with his family. The Lowering Days is his first novel.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
the lowering days. Copyright © 2021 by Gregory Brown. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Han-shan, “Cold Mountain Poem 16.” Copyright © 1958, 1959, 1965 by Gary Snyder, from Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint Press.
first edition
Cover design by Tree Abraham
Cover images © Eva Bidiuk/Shutterstock (tree); © Ihnatovaich Maryia/Shutterstock (birds)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition MARCH 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-299415-8
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-299413-4
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