Golden Boy (28 page)

To find out more about the issues raised in
Golden Boy,
including more information on the current upsurge in ivory poaching and specific things that you can do to help people with albinism in Africa, please visit my webpage, www.sullivanstories.com.

DOCUMENTARIES

Please be warned: The images found in the following videos are quite graphic.

• Africa Uncovered: Murder & Myth,
  Al Jazeera English documentary, July 28, 2008,
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23rqCzVYzM (Part 1) ;
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsfWvnE4njs (Part 2)
  
• Deadly Hunt: Albinos in Tanzania,
  United Nations video report, October 19, 2009,
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=zd7RRr5Eubg
  
• White and Black: Crimes of Colour,
  Under the Same Sun documentary, 2010.
  
• “Zeru, Zeru: Being Albino in Tanzania,”
  a photojournalism piece by Franck Vogel, Visura Magazine.com,
  http://www.visuramagazine.com/franck-vogel-zeru-zeru#.UCwqe46PdRk
  

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS WORKING IN THE FIELD

Please be warned: The images found on the following sites are quite graphic.

• Under the Same Sun:
  www.underthesamesun.com
  A Canadian charity founded in 2008, UTSS focuses on the education and support of albino students. UTSS educates the general populace to value people with albinism and works to ensure that people with albinism have access to education themselves. They provide student scholarships, school supplies, and lifesaving sunscreen and hats.
  
• Asante Mariamu:
  www.asante-mariamu.org
  Named after Mariamu Staford, the Tanzanian woman with albinism who survived an attack and the loss of her arms in 2008, Asante Mariamu runs “SunDrives,” raising funds for lifesaving sun protection clothing, sunglasses, and sunscreen. It also supports a dermatology clinic for people with albinism in Malawi and works to bring international attention to this crisis.
  
• The Salif Keita Global Foundation Inc.:
  www.salifkeita.us
  A nonprofit organization founded by Malian musician and singer Salif Keita, himself a person with albinism, SKGF brings media attention to the global plight of people with albinism, engages in advocacy for their rights and social integration, and raises funds to provide them with free health care, support groups, and educational services in the United States, Africa, and around the world.
  

First and foremost, thanks are due to my wonderful husband, Nick Boivin. Thank you for encouraging me to chase the dream of becoming an author, badgering me to keep going through the rough spots, and cheering my every success. Thank you for doing the laundry and walking the dog when I needed time to write. I noticed and was grateful. And I didn't really want that blue sweater you put through the dryer, anyway.

To my family: Thank you for reading to me incessantly as a child and for always being excited when I wrote. To Mom, for going into innumerable bookstores in the United States and Ireland every summer and buying hundreds of books (staggered in difficulty to grow with my reading ability) that you boxed up and shipped to wherever we were living . . . and then proceeded to read with me every night. To Dad, for using whatever squeaky voices were required for the complete experience of
Calvin & Hobbes,
and then traveling with me to Tanzania and reading every single draft of my book when I got around to writing one myself. To my brother, Mark, for letting me read to you and pass on all that fun, even when you got all grown up.

I am grateful to the staff of both the Canadian and Tanzanian branches of Under the Same Sun, an organization doing a remarkable job of helping people with albinism in Tanzania, for sharing their time and expertise with me. Special thanks to Vicky Ntetema, a woman fearlessly working for the human rights of people with albinism in Africa in spite of the ongoing threat to her personal safety, who took hours out of her busy day to tell me her story and give me an understanding of both the problem and the work being done for a solution.

A big thank-you also to my terrific writers' groups, and to Carol McIntosh and Josie Doak, my insightful beta readers. To Susan Weber, Kim Girard, Carol Gray, and John Englander, who were there as I bungled through a first draft. To Katie Slivensky, Lisa Palin, Lauren Barrett, Julia Maranan, and Annie Cardi: Thank you for being with me through the slow and terrifying process of turning that first draft into a published novel.

To the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award selection committee, for discovering
Golden Boy
and helping me catch the eye of my amazing agent, Caryn Wiseman. To Caryn, for that magical sentence “I'd love to see the full manuscript,” and all your tireless work since then to ensure that I got only the best out of being a debut author. And to Kate Ritchey, Cindy Howle, Ryan Thomann, Cecilia Yung, and all the marvelous people at G. P. Putnam's Sons who have taken my story and, with boundless enthusiasm, turned it into a beautiful book.

Finally, and most especially, to my phenomenal editor, Stacey Barney, for falling in love with Habo and having the vision to see this novel in the one you saw. I am continuously amazed at the care you take in bettering my writing. You pushed
Golden Boy
far beyond what I was originally able to imagine, and I know I couldn't have gotten to this point without your guidance. I consider myself immeasurably blessed to have had you edit my first book. Thank you.

tara sullivan
was born in India and spent her childhood living in Bangladesh, Ecuador, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic with her parents, who were international aid workers. She received a BA in Spanish literature and cognitive science from the University of Virginia, and a MA in Latin American studies and an MPA in nonprofit management from Indiana University. To research
Golden Boy
, Tara traveled to Tanzania, where she interviewed those working to rescue and educate Tanzanian people with albinism. She currently teaches high school Spanish and lives in Malden, Massachusetts.
Golden Boy
is her first novel.