The Hollow Heart by Marie Rutkoski

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’m so grateful for my sons, Eliot and Téo, whose love shapes everything I do and write. Many thanks as well to my partner, Eve Gleichman, who somehow sees right through me in the most tender way. I’m glad I get to quarantine with the three of you. And the cats, too, I guess.

My fellow writer friends—what would I do without you? Thanks for all your help, whether it was reading drafts, giving good advice, having writing Zoom dates with me, being the world’s best host, or badgering me to just finish the book already: Marianna Baer, Holly Black, Kristin Cashore, Cassandra Clare, Zoraida Córdova, Adam and Sabina Deaton, Morgan Fahey, Donna Freitas, Anna Godberson, Daphne Grab, Anne Heltzel, Josh Lewis, Sarah Mesle, Jill Santopolo, Eliot Schrefer, and Ashley Woodfolk.

My agent, Alexandra Machinist, and everyone at ICM, including Lindsey Sanderson, as well as Felicity Blunt, Roxane Edouard, and the Curtis Brown team on the other side of the Atlantic, are stars. Thank you as well to my editors, Trisha de Guzman and Joy Peskin, who always believed in The Forgotten Gods duology, and everyone at Macmillan, including Jen Besser, Beth Clark, Molly Brouillete Ellis, Teresa Ferraiolo, Kathryn Little, Kelsey Marrujo, Mary Van Akin, and Allison Verost. Ruben Ireland, what a stunning cover you gave me! Thank you as well to everyone at Hodder UK, especially Molly Powell.

Sabina Deaton, Laura Fields, and Anna Tabachnik, I always appreciate your art and design feedback. A special thanks to Laura Fields for introducing me to the Lightning Fields, an art installation by Walter de Maria that inspired the field of ethereal and earthly poles in this book.

Finally, thank you to all of the booksellers, librarians, and readers. When writers talk about world-building, we mean an invented world’s habits, cultures, maps, and landscape. But you are the true builders of worlds, for nothing in these pages would exist without you.