Misdirected (20 page)

 

 

Acknowledgments

To David and Glenda Berman, the very best parents in the whole world who always let me make my own choices.

To Gary Ploski, my partner, very best friend, and the most important person on this entire planet (to me).

To my agent, Laura Strachan, for her tireless effort, and her love of literature.

To everyone at Seven Stories Press for publishing work with a conscience.

To Anne Rumberger, a fantastic editor, and a champion for this book.

To the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, including David Hollander, Brian Morton, Ernesto Mestre, Mary LaChapelle, Carolyn Ferrell, and Victoria Redel. I'm not sure where I'd be without any of you. Especially David who made me believe I could be a writer when I was just twenty years old.

To Renee Wicklund and Trent England, two incredible friends (and writers) who generously let me use their beliefs and experiences as research for the book, and who read and gave notes on early drafts.

To my cats, Magneto and Cthulhu, who slept on my legs/on my arms/on my laptop while I wrote this entire book.

To all the people out there who are bullied for being honest about who they are.

And to anyone out there who chooses to change the world through kindness.

 

 

About the Author

Ali Berman
is the author of
 Choosing a Good Life: Lessons f
rom People Who Have Found
Their Place in the World
. She works as a humane
 educator for HEART, helping to educate kids about human rights, animal protection and environmental ethics. Ali was born in England, grew up in New York, and now lives and writes in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two cats.
Misdirected
 is her first novel.

 

 

About Seven Stories Press

Seven Stories Press
is an independent book publisher based in New York City. We publish works of the imagination by such writers as Nelson Algren, Russell Banks, Octavia E. Butler, Ani DiFranco, Assia Djebar, Ariel Dorfman, Coco Fusco, Barry Gifford, Martha Long, Luis Negrón, Hwang Sok-yong, Lee Stringer, and Kurt Vonnegut, to name a few, together with political titles by voices of conscience, including Subhankar Banerjee, the Boston Women's Health Collective, Noam Chomsky, Angela Y. Davis, Human Rights Watch, Derrick Jensen, Ralph Nader, Loretta Napoleoni, Gary Null, Greg Palast, Project Censored, Barbara Seaman, Alice Walker, Gary Webb, and Howard Zinn, among many others. Seven Stories Press believes publishers have a special responsibility to defend free speech and human rights, and to celebrate the gifts of the human imagination, wherever we can. In 2012 we launched Triangle Square
books for young readers
with strong social justice and narrative components, telling personal stories of courage and commitment. For additional information, visit www.sevenstories.com.