This project was undertaken with a great deal of ongoing thought and conversation and concern about the line between allyship and appropriation—a line that might feel different to different readers. It is my great hope that this book will lead the curious to read direct, personal accounts of the AIDS crisis—and that any places where I’ve gotten the details wrong might inspire people to tell their own stories.
Some book world thanks: Kathryn Court and Victoria Savanh; Nicole Aragi, Duvall Osteen, and Grace Dietshe; Eric Wechter; Francesca Drago. Three intrepid summer interns came to me courtesy of DePaul University: Felipe Cabrera, Megan Sanks, and Natasha Khatami. Gina Frangello, Thea Goodman, Dika Lam, Emily Grey Tedrowe, Zoe Zolbrod, and Jon Freeman were essential early readers. Portions of this novel were researched and written at Yaddo, Ucross, and Ragdale residencies. This book, like so many others, wouldn’t have been possible without support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Huge thanks to Maureen O’Brien, Patty Gerstenblith, Adair McGregor, and Cassie Ritter Hunt on the subjects of art, inheritance, and university galleries; and to Paul Weil, Steve Kleinedler, Todd Summar, J. Andrew Goodman, Michael Anson, Amanda Roach, Amy Norton, Charles Finch, and Edward Hamlin, for conversations and introductions too varied to enumerate.
Lydia and Heidi, thank you for being so good at entertaining yourselves while I was writing and editing.
Most important, my endless thanks for the time, patience, and encouragement of those who lived through all this and sat down to coffee or let me into their homes or emailed with me endlessly, in many cases about personal and traumatic things. In addition to the writers mentioned above, thanks to Peggy Shinner; to TB; to Justin Hayford of the Legal Council for Health Justice (a tireless resource and amazing early reader); to Dr. David Moore, Dr. David Blatt, and Russell Leander, who made Unit 371 a beautiful place; to Bill McMillan, who was out there on that ledge with the banner; to the inimitable and indomitable Lori Cannon; and to the memories of the amazing men you all told me about. I did my best.