Tiger, Tiger (41 page)
In a bedtime story that I’ve been telling my daughter recently, a witch halts the Earth’s turning. Because time has stopped, there is no more night, just the sun’s never-ending brightness. The sun is the only one who’s happy about this because he’s being stared at all the time; he no longer has to compete with the glory of the moon. Nocturnal animals are confused and can’t come out of their burrows. Nobody can sleep until the spell is broken and the witch is locked up in an underground dungeon.“But it’s not over,” I assure my daughter, who loves the drama of cliffhangers: “The witch has text-messaged her sister to help her escape.”
I make up stories for my daughter just as my father had done for me when I was her age. Some family traditions I keep; others must end with me.
I cannot possibly thank everybody to whom I am grateful for showing me friendship, generosity, kindness, or tenderness this past decade. I don’t want to chance an oversight in that regard. So I limit myself to those who have had a direct impact on my writing of
Tiger, Tiger.
I want to thank:
John Vernon of Binghamton University and Edvige Giunta at New Jersey City University, my mentors, for teaching me what I needed to know in order to tell my own story. To you I owe my deepest gratitude.
Terra Chalberg, for your immense precision, care, and energy; for your incredible first edits, unflagging confidence, and patient detective work in unearthing the 1989 court records; and most of all, for being a “tiger” of an agent.
Courtney Hodell, for your superb and tireless editorial work, your boundless intuition and deftness, and for digging deep to bring out what was hidden but had to be expressed. You are an editor par excellence.
Tom O’Connor, for editing my drafts over the years, and for giving me the courage to speak to “the unspeakable.”
Mark Krotov, Marion Duvert, Sarita Varma, and every other supportive and caring voice at FSG and the Susan Golomb Literary Agency.
My overseas editors, for bringing my story to a global readership; I cannot thank you enough.
The teachers I’d worked closely with on this book at Binghamton University and at New Jersey City University and who offered outstanding critiques: Pamela Gay, Nancy Henry, Leslie Heywood, Maria Gillan, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, Ingeborg Bachman, Joshua Fausty, Emily Bernard, Connie Sica, and Chris Wessman. Thank you to NJCU’s fine writing teachers Bob Hamburger, Bruce Chadwick, and Charles Lynch for helping me to develop as a burgeoning writer. Also, I’m greatly indebted to the members of creative writing workshops at both NJCU and Binghamton University who offered their valuable input on individual sections of
Tiger, Tiger.
Louise DeSalvo, for her great advice and excellent write-a-life blog.
Steven McGowan, Kathi Difulvio, Aaryn Nardone, Quana Brock, and Sarah Jeffries, for reading the early full-length draft and offering important editorial contributions and/or wise insights.
Finally, I want to thank my daughter for continuing to teach me every day what really matters in life.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margaux Fragoso recently completed a PhD in English/ creative writing at Binghamton University. Her short stories and poems have appeared in
The Literary Review
and
Barrow Street
, among other literary journals.