Hand in the early 1980s.
Hand read Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren when it first came out in 1975, and it was a huge influence on her early works, such as Winterlong . In spring 2012, Hand visited Washington, DC, and saw her dear friend Rafael Sa’adah, who had an amazing surprise in store: one of the original manuscripts of Dhalgren , which he’d acquired from a book dealer. Hand says, “Raf unwrapped it for the first time and we went through it page by page. Like entering a literary Tutankhamun’s tomb.” Hand took many photos of the text, including this shot of the novel’s epigraph, which she has always loved.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my brother Brian, for the inspiration for Icarus. Also, profound thanks to Geoffrey Chester of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, for his technical advice. Any errors of fact or judgment contained herein are, of course, the author’s.