Acknowledgements
The subtitle of this volume, How to Tell a Story, is as much applicable to this book’s process of production as to its contents. The story of this book begins in 2017, when Dahlia Shehata, Karen Sonik, and Frauke Weiershäuser, having established a mutual interest in literary theory and its application to Sumerian and Akkadian narratives, organized a workshop at the 63rd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Marburg, Germany. Our goal was to stimulate discussion and debate on literary approaches to Mesopotamian narratives, and especially to offer young scholars a platform to present their research on the topic. The subsequent years have involved numerous trials and losses, both personal and public—not least the COVID-19 pandemic, which imposed its own obstacles due to the international nature of this collaboration—but we are delighted to be able to bring this project to a close.
The editors are grateful to the authors published in this volume for their contributions and their patience; to the peer reviewers and series editors for their helpful comments; to the attendees of the workshop at the Rencontre where this volume had its inception, particularly Andrew George and Enrique Jiménez, for so ably chairing the sessions; and to Katelyn Chin at Brill for her swift responses throughout the publication process. Special thanks go to Carina Beckman (Würzburg), for assistance with preparing many of the articles’ final versions, Sarah Burgin (Würzburg) for assistance with copyediting, and Greta Van Buylaere and Johannes Bach (Würzburg) for extraordinary moral and other support.
Unfortunately, there is no story without sad events and low points. The attentive reader will note that the original call-and-response format of this volume remains unfulfilled in the section on Sumerian narratives. We regret the loss of the respondent, whose duties precluded completion of the revised response at a late stage in the volume’s production. We also regret the loss of Frauke Weiershäuser (München), who unfortunately had to leave the editorial team in the early stages of the volume’s production. We owe her special thanks for the work she put into our originally joint project.
I (Dahlia Shehata) am grateful to Greta Van Buylaere, Johannes Bach, Claus Ambos, Giovanna Matini, Carola Koch, Helena Young, and Daniel Schwemer for their collegial and mental support.
Still, the real end—at least of my personal acknowledgment story—is a tribute to the closest family members, Karl-Heinz Vetter, Frederick, Nora, and Susanne, who have patiently endured time pressure and varying degrees of annoyance and have maintained faith in the project’s completion.
I (Karen Sonik) am grateful to Kellie Zimmerman, Ariel Smith, Sasha Renninger, Sandra Matsuyama, David Kertai, and Donnie Allison—“the axe at my side … the shield in front of me” (SB Gilg. VIII 46–47). My work on this volume is dedicated to all the friends and family who have seen me through both the best and worst of times: Barb Bondy; Joyce de Vries; Michael Djupstrom; Luosha Fang; Evelyn He; Beate Pongratz-Leisten; Sylvestre Pires; Holly Pittman; Greta Van Buylaere; Chander, Sikander, Neena, Gary, and Serenity Sonik—and to Henry and James, who make life worth living.