The dedication: not only choosing to whom but how....

10:04 am - January 17, 2012: 24 notes

The dedication: not only choosing to whom but how. After completing a book, one might feel all word-ed out. How to dream up an earnest, yet poetic, dedication?

Well, these authors had no trouble at all, leading me to wonder if some of them wrote their dedications first. Young writers: stop your memoir, your novel, your screenplay this instant and write the perfect dedication before it’s too late!

Clockwise from top left:

One thousand love letters

To Rosemarie, my mother, origin of all happiness, poetry, song.
To Judith and Zenka, who gave me France.
To Barbara, Dixie, Laura, and Angela, dear friends.
And as always, to Helen.

—Carole Maso, Ava (Dalkey Archive Press, 2002)

FOR STEPHANIE—

my sun,
my moon,
my star and satellite

—Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master’s Son (Random House, 2012)

For no one

—Blake Butler, There Is No Year (Harper Perennial, 2011)

For my mother, the root.
For my father, the wanderer.
For my sister, the poet.
For my brother, the peaceful heart.
For Michael, fiery joy.

—Kieja Parssinen, The Ruins of Us (Harper Perennial, on sale today!)