Acknowledgments
I am lucky to be part of a giant extended family with a history of shenanigans and a collective gift for storytelling. I learned from the masters, and I am grateful to every last one of you. For the stories in this book, I want to thank especially my Granny Ruth, my Grandma Aunt Mano, Father Al, and my aunts Marcia, Sue, and Cathy (the original three sisters). Also, my uncle Don, my aunts Barb, Kate, and Lisa, and my cousins Eva and Sally, who have always made space in their lives for art and science and family and love all at once, which is how I learned it was possible.
My parents, Dave and MaryAnne, taught me to hold on to joy no matter what else I have to carry, and to try to be patient, which is to say that they taught me how to be a writer and a human.
My brother, Zac, is a master of balancing serious drama with lighthearted good humor, in writing and in real life. Our friendship is a centering force and I would not be whole without it.
My sister, Maggie, is the most caring and competent of any of us and has never once been afraid to call out my bullshit, which I will admit (just this once, in this space only) has made me a better person.
Thank you to Dick and Bonnie and every member of the extended Boyles family for accepting me into the fold and introducing me to the delights of a beach house vacation.
Kate Garrick, my agent, made all of this happen while being delightfully funny and supportive, even as the world took a turn, so I'm certain that she is a magical human. I am also grateful to Cathy Jaque and everyone at the Karpfinger Agency.
Jill Bialosky, Drew Elizabeth Weitman, and everyone at W. W. Norton helped me find new depths in these stories. Thank you all so much for deciding to take a chance on my work.
At Colorado State, Judy Doenges, Camille T. Dungy, Deborah Thompson, EJ Levy, Andrew Altschul, and Leslee Becker were wonderfully engaged and supportive teachers. Nic Brown encouraged my fiction in some very early bumpy stages, and Vauhini Vara's incredibly generous journalism lessons have been useful in creative nonfiction and fiction both.
I am grateful to everyone involved in organizing and executing both the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers' Conference and the Community of Writers. I feel very lucky to have been able to attend those programs. The residency I received from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Foundation was an incredible gift of time and quiet. To everyone at the Kenyon Review, the Masters Review, Boulevard, VQR, and other journals that have published my work, thank you, especially David Lynn, Kirsten Reach, Kim Winternheimer, Allison Wright, and Dusty Fruend. Alexander Chee's encouragement and support have also been incredibly important.
My Colorado State MFA classmates—fiction, poetry, and CNF—are the smartest and best, all of you. You let me join your lovely nonsense without ever making me feel old and ridiculous, and you read everything with generosity and kindness and wit. Thanks especially to Emily Ziffer, Emily Harnden, Cory Cotten-Potter, Sam Killmeyer, David Mucklow, Michelle Thomas, Caleb Gonzalez, and Melissa Merritt. Also, everyone in Nic Brown's graduate fiction class at UNC and the writing group that grew out of it, especially Ty Cronkite, Cameron Markway, and Jonnie Genova, and to Mary Scalise and her book club here in Loveland, who provided helpful feedback.
My workshop groups at Community of Writers and BLO, especially Victoria Blanco, Megan Tucker Orringer, Leslieann Hobayan, Lupita Eyde-Tucker, Re Marzullo, Holly LaBarbera, and Sabrina Sarro.
Meghan Pipe and Debbie Vance read approximately eight million drafts of these stories and gave thoughtful and detailed feedback on every single one. They check in regularly with my writing and my heart and send chocolate and booze when necessary. I'd be lost without either of them, in writing and in life.
Jim Myers generously let me tag along while he shared what he knew about ditches and water and sugar mills and the world, and I'm happy to have him as a friend.
Jaymi Anderson, Holly Collingwood, Harmony and Bill Tucker, John and Mary Poor, Peg and Ed Sanders, Nic Koontz and Katie Slota, Darci Hata and Ian Mickells, Leanne Porzycki, Katja Nix, Dan Hotch, Dan Park, Paris Hunt, John Morrissey, Luke Vance, and everyone else who makes my life happy and rich—thanks for staying on my team for all these years, friends.
My husband, Matty, to whom this book is dedicated, did all the housework and everything else for years so that I could write these stories in stolen hours before and after work, all while helping me see the best of myself. Thank you for sharing this life with me.
And finally, most urgently, to Madzie and Simon, two fierce, brilliant, passionate humans about to launch their own beautiful lives. This crazy world is lucky to have you, and so am I. All my love, forever.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Claire Boyles
All rights reserved
First Edition
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Boyles, Claire, author.
Title: Site fidelity : stories / Claire Boyles.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, [2021]
Identifiers: LCCN 2021004048 | ISBN 9780393531824 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780393531831 (epub)
Subjects: LCGFT: Short stories.
Classification: LCC PS3602.O9736 S58 2021 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021004048
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