The Half-Class by Kayvion Lewis

Acknowledgments

Holy crap, I can’t believe I’m writing this. It’s been nearly two years since I started writing this book, and now here I am, putting together my thank-yous like I’m giving an Oscar speech. Real talk, publishing a book really does feel as magical as winning an academy award. The road to my debut’s publication has been a rocky one, and everyone who’s taken the time to help this story find its way deserves all the thanks I can give. (That includes all you readers reading this right now!)

But as for the specific shoutouts, first, I’ve gotta give my undying gratitude to everyone at Parliament. To Chantal, thank you for taking a chance on a wide-eyed newbie author and her risqué little series. You will always be the first editor who read my work and said yes. (If not the only one, lol.)

To Loni and Malorie, I never expected to have two content editors, but I’m grateful to have gotten to work with both of you. You each made this book sharper and stronger.

Everyone at Parliament truly deserves a standing ovation. I couldn’t have dreamt up a better home for this story or a more badass team to debut with.

My darling critique partners deserve sooo much credit for helping sculpt this story into shape from the get-go. To Lisa, who read the first-ever draft of what would become this book, thank you for pushing me to go bigger and deeper with this and challenging me to address the topics that made me uncomfortable to write about. Without you, I never would’ve had the courage to give this book the complete rewrite it needed, and I’m certain The Half-Class wouldn’t exist at all.

To Juls! A hundred pages wouldn’t be enough to describe how much you mean to me! Thank you for volunteering to be the first to read this book when it really was The Half-Class, and thank you for reminding me on my most doubtful days just how much you believed in it. The day you hit me up with that “wanna be CPs?” email will go down as one of the best days in my writing life.

Finally, thanks, Dad, for letting me spend an entire summer typing away on the couch and never once telling me to close the laptop and get a job. And thank you to you and Mama, who fought against racism, violence, family, and the world itself to marry a person outside of your races in a state that wouldn’t even have let you a couple decades earlier. Thank you for never once letting Keithen or me think being mixed was a bad thing, even when the people next door said otherwise.

Thank you to all the people in my life who let me be myself in every way.

(Oh, and lastly, this is for you, Bianca—remember that time two years ago when I came over to your apartment and told you about this book I was writing? Then when you laughed at me, I told you I’d blast you in the acknowledgments? Well, here we are.)