To the entire L.M. Montgomery community and Islanders for providing insight and information—sometimes at a moment’s notice: L.M. Montgomery Society of Ontario, the L.M. Montgomery Heritage Society, L.M. Montgomery Literary Society, and the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island. You are also: Balaka Basu, Linda Boutilier, Rita Bode, Vanessa Brown, Mary Beth Cavert, Lesley Clement, Carolyn Strom Collins, Elizabeth DeBlois, Elizabeth Epperly, Irene Gammel, Kathy Gastle, Linda and Jack Hutton, Vappu Kannas, Yuka Kajihara, Caroline E. Jones, Benjamin Lefebvre, Jennifer Lister, Simon Lloyd, Andrea McKenzie, Tara K. Parmiter, E. Holly Pike, K.L. Poe, Laura Robinson, Mary Henley Rubio, Philip Smith, Kate Sutherland, ?sa Warnqvist, Elizabeth Waterston, Kathy Wasylenky, Melanie Whitfield, and Emily Woster.
Christy Woster died suddenly before the completion of the novel. Her generosity in sharing her research on Maud’s schoolbooks and hymnals was essential to Book One. I dedicate this section to her.
For giving me a place to stay, road tripping through northern Saskatchewan, and finding Laurel Hill: Wendy Roy and Garth Cantrill.
For gathering books, photos, journals, and other artefacts for me at the L.M. Montgomery Collection at the University of Guelph Archives: Jan Brett, Bev Buckie, Kathryn Harvey, Melissa McAfee, Ashley Shifflett McBrayne, and Darlene Wiltsie.
For giving me leads: the archivists who helped me at the Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island, the Presbyterian Church of Canada, and the Library Archives of Canada.
For telling stories and driving us around Prince Albert—and the map making: Ken Guedo.
For sending photos and documents, and verifying all of the little details: the Prince Albert Historical Society, and its archivist, Michelle Taylor, as well as Jamie Benson, Norman Hill, and Glenda Goertzen.
For letting us explore the land that was Laurel Hill: Johannes and Emily Van der Laan.
For providing history and context at the Prince Albert Cemetery: Derek Zbaraschuz.
For showing me Summerside, nineteenth-century style: Archivist/Collections Coordinator at the MacNaught History Centre & Archives, Fred Horne.
To the staff at the Oakwood Village Branch at the Toronto Public Library, thank you for tracking down all of those books and being so supportive of this project.
To the many Canadian and American Indigenous writers, artists, and educators who took the time to speak with me, particularly Prince Albert Métis Women’s Association, Wordcraft Circle, Indigenous Knowledge Systems Educator in Moose Jaw, Barb Frazer, and Gloria Lee, a Cree–Métis from Chitek Lake, Saskatchewan.
For the impromptu late-nineteenth-century history lesson and providing me with the cultural framework for this novel: Professor Gavin Taylor from Concordia University.
For providing me with insight into Presbyterianism and growing up Christian: Vanessa Brown, Andrea Hibrant-Raines, Julie Kraut, Andrea Lindsay, Rachel McMillan, and Blake Walker.
For explaining the organ: Edwin Brownell, Jacob Letkemann, and Mimi Mok.
For explaining horses: Felicia Quon.
A number of people also courageously read in part or in full many drafts. Thank you: Kathi Appelt, Mark Karlins, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) group who workshopped the first fifteen pages of a very early draft; Jen Bailey, Kelly Barston, Amy Rose Capetta, Beth Dranoff, Jessica Denhart, Betsy Epperly, Peter Langella, Benjamin Lefebvre, Meghan Matherne, Kekla Magoon, Katharine MacDonald, Rebecca Maizel, Cori McCarthy, Mary Pleiss, Tristan Poehlmann, Simon Lloyd, Ingrid Sundberg; and those who attended the VCFA writers’ June 2015 retreat: Katie Bayerl, Caroline Carlson, Mary E. Cronin, Erin Hagar, Jim Hill, Maggie Lehrman, Lori Goe Perez, Barb Roberts, Adi Rule, and Nicole Valentine.
To the faculty and community of the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults program, and the voices inside my head, my advisors: Sharon Darrow, Sarah Ellis, Mary Quattlebaum, and Rita Williams-Garcia. As well as Alan Cumyn, who saw something in my writing before I did.
And, to the rest of my VCFA class, the Dystropians: Shayda Bakshi, Stephen Bramucci, Laura Cook, Rachel Cook, Heidi Landry Phelps, Winter Quisgard, Sheryl Scarborough, Jeff Schill, Heather Strickland, and Ariel Woodruff. We survive.
To the vivacious Canadian author communities of IBBY, CANSCAIP (and the very helpful listserv) and TORkidLit; as well as Karleen Bradford, Stephen Geigen-Miller, Linda Granfield, Claire Humphrey, Karen Krossing, Sharon McKay, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Gillian O’Reilly, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Arthur Slade, Kevin Sylvester, Frieda Wishinsky, and Nicole Winters.
For covering me while I worked on an early draft of the novel: members of Indigo’s Online Merch team, especially Michael Bacal, Josh Fehrens, Michael Gallagher, Anne Lee, Meg Mathur, and Eva Quan.
For your continual support and encouragement: the faculty and administration of the School of Liberal Arts and Science at Humber College, including Trevor Arkell, Vera Beletzan, Eufemia Fantetti, Kelly Harness, and Matthew Harris.
For being there at the beginning, the middle, and the end: Sarah Cooper, Alex Gershon, Terry Gould, Holly Kent, Stephen Graham King, Caroline Nevin, Luis Latour, Alex MacFadyen, Rachel McMillan, Kate Newman, Laird Orr, James Roy, Rosemarie Schade, and Tamar Spina.
To my parents for building a home that nurtured creativity.
To my brother for your bravery.
To my grandmother, who reminds me to “continue what it is that I’m doing.”
And to Raff, for all of the things.
Thank you…