Queen of Kings - Maria Dahvana Headley [166]
THE MUSEION
The extraordinary Martin Epstein (who should certainly also appear in the friend category), Deloss Brown, and Carol Rocamora at NYU all took my brain and filled it with classics, Shakespeare, and spectacular choruses, back when I was twenty years old. Things had to shake around for a while, but I’m quite sure this book is in part the result of their groundwork. As for my personal Library of Alexandria, many highlights are mentioned in the Historical Notes and Chorus sectors, but Jonathan Carroll, Angela Carter, Michael Chabon, Isak Dinesen, Rikki Ducornet, Neil Gaiman, Mark Helprin, Stephen King, Madeleine L’Engle, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, China Miéville, and Peter Straub deserve special mention for writing books that continue to blow my mind and remake it. All their (diverse) writing informs mine. Go read their books. You will not regret it. And: I must thank one band most especially for this book. I’ve never been a metal fan. Ever. But as I wrote Queen of Kings, I discovered Iron Maiden. This book was written to a soundtrack of equal parts The Mountain Goats, The National, Iron Maiden, and Stevie Nicks’s “Gold Dust Woman.” There it is.
TRIBE
My family have all been victimized by crazed midnight phone calls in which I recite speeches by Cicero and restructure a book they haven’t yet read. Once again, I’m wildly lucky, both in the people I’m related to and in the people I married into. Huge love and gratitude to Adriane Headley, Mark Headley and Meghan Koch, Molly Headley and Idir Benkaci, the Lumpkin family, the Moulton family, and the Headley family, my son, Joshua Schenkkan, and my daughter, Sarah Schenkkan (Guys, you’re upgraded. You’re my stepkids, yeah, but you’re my family, and I claim you), the Schenkkan/Rothgeb family. And the chorus of shades: my grandparents R. Dwayne and Marguerite Moulton, and my dad, Mark Bryan Headley. I miss you. I wish you could each have a copy of this book.
Gratitude as well to my two house-leopards. They don’t care if they are thanked, but I wrote this book with their particular cat assistance, and the lions and tigers are based on them.
Finally, most important, gratitude and adoration to Robert Schenkkan, my favorite person in the universe, my beloved, my dearest one. You read this book at least seven times, lent me your bookshelves, picked me up when I was yowling, fed me dinner, poured me bourbon, kissed me, cheered me on, discussed and discussed, gave me your whole stunning heart, and every day made me so proud to be yours. People ask me all the time how I manage to be married to another writer, and the answer is that the other writer is you. You are so brilliant, so giving, and so the perfect man for me. This book, with all its magic, monsters, treasures, and eternal love affairs, is dedicated to you for a damn good reason, just as I am. Te teneo.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARIA DAHVANA HEADLEY is a MacDowell Colony Fellow whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, The Washington Post, and other publications. She is the author of the memoir The Year of Yes (2007), which has been translated into nine languages. She lives in Seattle. Learn more at www.mariadahvanaheadley.com or www.cleopatraqueenofkings.com.