You Think That's Bad

by Jim Shepard

  I’m also grateful for the support provided by Williams College and the Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as for the inspiration and expertise provided by Elizabeth Kolbert, Rich Remsberg, Milton Harrigan Jr., David Tucker-Smith, Susan Coby, Kerry Sulkowicz, Margreet van de Griend, Karin van Rooijen, Monique Somers, Rebecca Ohm, Christine Ménard, Arnoud Molenaar, Jaap Kwadijk, Jos van Alphen, Pavel Kabat, and Djeevan Schiferli. I’m equally indebted to the saving editorial intelligence provided by Peter Matson, Jim Rutman, Frances Kiernan, Max Winter, Eli Horowitz, Michael Ray, Jordan Bass, Emily Milder, and especially Gary Fisketjon.

  Other readers and friends like Lisa Wright, Steve Wright, Gary Zebrun, and Mike Tanaka have been even more constant in their support. But I need to single out for special praise the contributions of those readers who encounter my stuff at its earliest stages—Ron Hansen and Sandra Leong—as well as the person who’d be the first to say, with complete accuracy, that she improves me in just about every other way, as well: Karen Shepard.

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jim Shepard is the author of six novels and three previous collections of stories, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, a National Book Award finalist. He teaches at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.