My Accidental Jihad (20 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book was made possible by many acts of kindness. I would like to thank the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Vermont Studio Center for supporting my work. Thanks to Michelle Cacho-Negrete for encouragement and inspiration from the very beginning, and to Greg Martin for insightful feedback on an early draft. Thanks to Jin Auh at the Wylie Agency for her acumen and heart—and to Craig Popelars, Kathy Pories, Ina Stern, Anne Winslow, Kelly Bowen, and the rest of the talented staff at Algonquin, with whom I am honored to work and in whose bright company I always want to linger. Thanks to my colleagues at
Th
e Sun
magazine—my surrogate family in the south—and especially to Sy Safransky, incomparable mentor and friend. Abiding gratitude to Hamza Yusuf Hanson. Thanks to my Libyan family, who showed me the beauty of faith and the meaning of welcome; and to my parents, John and Suzanne Bremer, for instilling in me an open heart and an adventurous spirit, without which this journey would not be possible. Thanks to my children, Aliya Rose and Khalil Zade, who teach me daily about presence and joy; and to Ismail Suayah, muse and midwife to every page. In your tender heart I found my home.

Published by

ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL

Post Office Box 2225

Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of

WORKMAN PUBLISHING

225 Varick Street

New York, New York 10014

© 2014 by Krista Bremer. All rights reserved.

eISBN 978-1-61620-397-9