by Brad Land
Thank you schools.
Germantown Academy, Franklin & Marshall College, Western Michigan University, Northwest Missouri State, University of Iowa, Ball State University, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Coastal Carolina University, Francis Marion University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Warren Wilson College, Sewanee, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Alabama.
Thank you all good North Carolina Festival of the Book people.
Thank you to the many kind people I’ve met at bookstores, in classes, at readings, at panels and everywhere else; there are so very many of you, and your kind hearts have kept me going. My debt to you is great.
My cousins, Liz, Julie, Patrick, Eric, Carliss, Clint, Zelle, Wilson.
My aunts and uncles, Laurie, Mark and Pat, Dow and Deborah, Greg M.
My grandparents Benjamin S. and Julia Land.
Thank you parents.
Kenneth Land (who first showed me words and how one loves them and makes them).
Nancy Land (who first showed me what stong means, and what gentle means, and what care, unblinking, means).
Special thank you to the MacDowell Colony and all the good people and animals there, Michelle A, Deb, David, Blake, Mr. T, Monadnock, old Black Bear.
Special thanks to the good people at Random House, Steve Messina, Vicky Wong, Daniel Menaker, Jennifer Jones.
Thank you John Michael Johnson.
Thank you Killer Films.
Thank you David Monahan.
Thank you Sarah Messer.
Thank you David Green.
Thank you Rebecca Lee.
Thank you Wendy Brenner.
Thank you Dal Connor.
Thank you Joshua Locey
Thank you Emile Hirsch.
Thank you John Pritchett.
Thank you Cecelia Webber.
Thank you Heather McEntire.
Thank you Selah Saterstrom.
Thank you Stephani Tewes.
Thank you John Gray
Thank you Justin Lee.
Thank you Jynne Martin.
Thank you Kristen Foster.
I could not have made this book without the help of the following individuals.
Bill Clegg believed first and always.
Amy Williams is my sister and hero and champion and most adored.
Lee Boudreaux got everything, understood all of me, when first we spoke.
A most special thank you to Laura Ford, who granted me her steady patience and faith, and her brilliant work, and her brilliant mind; without these, I couldn’t have seen this one through.
John Jeremiah Sullivan is a shaman and showed me many things I could not see but soon did.
Brett Land taught me to love the world, again, feverishly, and showed me, again, what it is a writer does.
Matthew Land taught me to work, ferociously, and without pause.
My brothers, I love you always, you are my best friends, the kindest people I know; most thanks of all be to you.
About the Author
BRAD LAND’S memoir Goat was a national bestseller whose publishing rights were sold in six foreign countries. Land studied writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Western Michigan University. He has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony He lives in Carrboro, North Carolina.
This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of
some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are
not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations,
incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended
to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects,
any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 by Brad Land
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Wesleyan University Press
for permission to reprint “Pilgrims” from Door in the Mountain:
New and Collected Poems, 1965—2003 (Wesleyan University Press) by
Jean Valentine, copyright © 2004 by Jean Valentine. Reprinted by
permission of Wesleyan University Press.
eISBN: 978-0-307-48952-4
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