afterword

There are certain things in a writer’s life, you cannot pay for.

You cannot pay for people to like your writing.

You cannot pay a publisher to publish your book.

You cannot pay other authors to give you a blurb.

You cannot pay for critics to give you a good review.

And lastly you cannot pay someone to write a foreword/afterword.

To receive a fore/afterword is a gift one writer gives to another, it’s a way of paying it forward. It’s an honour to write one and it’s an honour to receive it. It’s a practice that is outside of capitalist procedure where everything has to be paid for or you’re somehow indebted. Where it’s tit for tat. A fore/afterword is unconditional. It’s a true gift. And as Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote in Braiding Sweetgrass, the only thing you have to do when you receive a gift is: show gratitude.

A few months ago, I asked one of my favourite German essayists – Lisa Krusche - to write an afterword for my book Things That Are Different Now.

– When I read it, I cried.

This…