Ryan Porter - You Cant Get There From Here: The Past as Present in Small-Town Ontario Fiction

This book has been a long time in the making, far longer than I would have imagined at the beginning of the process. It is difficult to summarize and acknowledge all of the people who, over the years, have influenced the project directly or indirectly. If Ive left someone out, it is an oversight, one that I hope to correct in person at some point in the future.

I would like to thank the incredibly helpful, supportive, kind, and professional people at the University of Toronto Press. Thanks, first, to Mark Thompson for guiding the manuscript through the many rounds of reviews and approvals. Mark offered encouragement and exceptionally helpful advice when it mattered most, and I am very grateful to him. Barbara Tessman provided insightful and incisive edits, which resulted in a much improved manuscript. Thanks to Frances Mundy for shepherding the manuscript through the latter stages of the process, and also to Breanna Muir for her expert advice and suggestions.

I would also like to thank Siobhan McMenemy whose comments early in this process had a lasting impact on the book. Thank you, Siobhan.

Tracy Ware at Queens University supervised an earlier version of this project. At many points while writing this book I would question my judgement. At those moments, I would simply ask myself: what might Tracy suggest? The answers to that question helped guide the rhetorical and analytical aspects of the book. Thank you, Tracy. You are a personal and professional exemplar to people in this field. Thanks to Leslie Monkman who offered his insight and expertise during an earlier version of this project. And while I havent been a student at Queens for nearly a decade now, I do want to thank all of the faculty members who helped, taught, or employed me during my time as a student there. Thank you, also, to Gerald Lynch at the University of Ottawa for his kind interest and generous advice over the years.

My sincere thanks go to the people at Studies in Canadian Literature. A version of appeared in that journal in 2011, and they have graciously allowed publication of that material in this book.

Thank you to the anonymous peer reviewers of the book manuscript. Your critical insight and expertise improved this project significantly.

Thank you to Paul Barrett for his astute suggestions at many stages of this project. Thank you, also, to my many other friends who listened politely as I rambled on about this topic through the years, but more importantly, for all of the laughs that weve shared.

Thank you to my colleagues and friends at Algonquin College. I am fortunate to get to work with such kind, professional, generous people every day.

Special thanks to my mother, Kathryn, for sharing her love of Canadian literature with me many years ago. My entire family - Rob, Emily, Reg, Genie, Salim, Louise, and Aneessa - thank you everyone for your words of support through the years.

Most of all, I would like to thank Kareen, Georgia, and Rosie. Georgia and Rosie, you have been the source of so much joy and happiness during the years that you have influenced this book in ways that I cant even begin to realize. Kareen, your encouragement, advice, love, and support have influenced this book more than anything else. For all of this, and for our many years together, I humbly dedicate it to you and our daughters.