Rion Scott - Insurrections

Thank you to all the editors who gave these stories a home in their literary magazines, and even to many who declined to publish early versions but provided a kind word or a helpful suggestion.

Support provided by Kimbilio, the Pan-African Literary Forum, and Bowie State University kept me going.

Many of these stories were written while I attended George Mason University’s MFA in Creative Writing program and quite literally wouldn’t exist without the spark and encouragement of my brilliant professors Susan Shreve, Alan Cheuse (RIP), Courtney Brkic, Mary Kay Zuravleff, and Steve Goodwin. Thank you also to my classmates, fellow writers and friends Ryan Call, Alyson Foster, Eugenia Tsutsumi, David Conner, David Heath, David Rider, Becky Bikowski, Mike Scalise, and Sara Hov. Thank you to everyone who’s ever been in a workshop with me.

Bro Yao, your heartfelt words of encouragement have been just golden and so necessary, especially when I can’t see around the dark corners.

Thanks to Mensah Demary for the laughs and the literary camaraderie.

Thank you to Kyle Minor for the encouraging messages, which were just minutes of his time but always seemed to come right at the moment I needed them most.

If I extended ten thousand thank-yous to the incomparable human being known as Kima Jones, I would still come up short.

Thank you to all the good people on Twitter who allow me to waste time with them.

Thank you, Rickita Perry, for being such a good reader, but most importantly such a good friend.

Thank you to my parents, Nigel and Monica Scott, for their ongoing unconditional love and support. None of this is possible without their emotional, material, and spiritual backing. My big brothers, Duane and Omar, were my original readership, and to this day they are my most loyal readers. I’ll never stop wanting to be like my big brothers. Thanks too to my sisters-in-law, Tracy and Tara, my nephew and nieces, Zavier, Sasha, Nia, and Maya, and my cousin Brian.

Thanks to my Abdur-Rahman family in New York. It’s incredible how much richer my life is with you all there.

Special thanks to my father for letting me interview him about his journey. I got a couple of stories out of our talks, but I also got so much more.

My grandmother used to sit with me and tell me all about her childhood, her travels, the pains still fresh after decades and decades, how she grew to be a master seamstress, and how much she loved my mother. All of this is in here somewhere and for that I am grateful. I miss her dearly.

My son, Samaadi Cabral Scott, the funniest little comedian on the planet, Daddy loves you.

Eternal thanks to my wife, Sufiya Abdur-Rahman, for reading every word, critiquing every syllable, and most of all for loving me.