Marlena
Page 27
Thank you to the Moyer family, especially Marcy and Dan. Your support empowered me to pursue writing at a time when my life could have easily changed direction. I will never forget it.
A profound thank-you to my teachers along the way, for their guidance and wisdom, and for their books: Michael Delp, Jerry Williams, Irini Spanidou, Jonathan Safran Foer, Lorrie Moore, and David Lipsky. Thanks also to the immensely kind and encouraging Anton DiSclafani and Edan Lepucki.
Further thanks to the New York University MFA program, from Deborah Landau and the administrators to the world-changing faculty to my workshop cohort.
A big bear hug for my colleagues at Catapult. Special thanks to Jenn Kovitz and Leigh Newman, and to Andy Hunter, for creating a workspace that values writers. Amy Kurzweil, Max Winter, and Jess Arndt: this novel is better for its deep acquaintance with your imaginations.
For everything from sharp reads and writerly commiseration to happy hour, endless thanks to my brilliant friends and tireless champions Anna Breslaw, Becky Dinerstein, Rachel Fershleiser, Rebecca Kauffman, Halimah Marcus, Whitney Mulhauser, Julia Pierpont, Zoe Triska, and Margaux Weisman.
This book owes a special debt to my friend Lea, whose spirit and memory will always be with me, and to my sister, Kelsey. And to the rest of my Michigan girls—you know who you are—thank you for those Petoskey summers. They give me something to try and write my way back to.
Finally, I’d like to thank Gabe Habash, a reader so smart I had to marry him. The next one’s for you.
About the Author
JULIE BUNTIN is from northern Michigan. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, O, The Oprah Magazine, Slate, Electric Literature, and One Teen Story, among other publications. She teaches fiction writing at Marymount Manhattan College and is the director of writing programs at Catapult. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
I
New York
Michigan
New York
Michigan
New York
Michigan
New York
Michigan
Omissions
II
New York
Michigan
New York
Michigan
New York
Michigan
New York
Michigan
New York
Marlena
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
MARLENA. Copyright © 2017 by Julie Buntin. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.henryholt.com
Cover design by Emily Pracher; cover photograph © Robert Morton/ iStock by Getty Images
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Buntin, Julie, author.
Title: Marlena: a novel / Julie Buntin.
Description: New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016021949|ISBN 9781627797641 (hardback)|ISBN 9781627797634 (electronic book)
Subjects: LCSH: Female friendship—Fiction.|Influence (Psychology)—Fiction.|Teenage girls—Drug use—Fiction.|Teenage girls—Death—Fiction.|Self-actualization (Psychology) in women—Fiction.|Michigan—Fiction.|Psychological fiction.|BISAC: FICTION / Literary.|FICTION / Contemporary Women.
Classification: LCC PS3602.U558 M37 2017|DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016021949
First Edition: April 2017
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.