Call Me Athena

by Colby Cedar Smith

  Thank you to my editor, Patty Rice, and the folks at Andrews McMeel Publishing. Your commitment to editing and designing beautiful books is astounding. I will be forever grateful to you for manifesting my dreams and making this real. Thank you for believing there was an audience for this book. And thank you, Ruta Sepetys. Your kind words of praise and genuine letter of support were life changing for me. Thank you for lifting me up.

  Thank you to my mother, Jan, my father, Jim, and my sister, Darcy. Your voices of love and encouragement are ever-present. You have shaped me into being, and I am forever grateful that you are mine. Thank you to the Schoene, Bayly, Regele, Langohr, Baker, Broome, Marquis, and Rodriguez families for accepting me and loving me as your own.

  Thank you, Phoebe and Saylor, my bluebird and sailboat. You give my days meaning. You inspire me to create and allow me to love more than I ever thought possible. Thank you for listening and questioning and for being the most funny, sensitive, shining children that I could ever imagine.

  Thank you to my magnificent and brilliant husband, Blair Schoene, who has read every poem I have ever written. Thank you for taking me on adventures. Thank you for challenging me and encouraging me. Thank you for helping me to be brave. You are my heart.

  And finally, thank you to the readers, the creators, the innovators, and the dreamers. You inspire me every day. And thank you to the brave souls, like Jeanne and Gio, who risk everything and come to the United States to search for a better life. We are stronger because of your courage, hard work, and dedication. You are the soul of

  our nation.

  Colby Cedar Smith grew up in the Midwest, and she still dreams of the cold northern woods and the smell of lake water. She holds degrees from Colorado College and Harvard University. In 2020, Colby received a New Jersey Individual Artist Fellowship in Poetry. Her poems have been published in Bellevue Literary Review, Harper Palate, Mid-American Review, Pleiades, Potomac Review, Saranac Review, and The Iowa Review. Colby lives with her husband and two children in New Jersey, and teaches creative writing at the Arts Council of Princeton. You can read more of her work at www.colbycedarsmith.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ColbyCedar, and Instagram: @Colby_Cedar_Smith.

  Enjoy Call Me Athena as an audiobook, wherever audiobooks are sold.