Acknowledgments
Joyce Salisbury was my ultimate inspiration, and this volume would not exist if I had not stumbled upon her book, which got me (and many others) thinking about bestiality in the first place. Many years later, she graciously agreed to write the conclusion to my volume and gave me pep talks throughout the final months of manuscript preparation.
Everything started officially with an irreverent paper on bestiality that I submitted to a Kalamazoo MEARCSTAPA session on monstrous sexuality. Thank you for giving me a chance, monster folks. Special thanks to Kat Tracy, who invited me to take on this project, advocated for me, and helped me through many of the hard parts. Marcella Mulder at Brill always kept the project moving forward with efficiency and poise, regardless of any setbacks.
Andrea Schutz, Anna Russakoff, and Maribeth Polhill have been patient and generous allies throughout the years.
Bailey Flannery not only helped with the early editing process but stepped in to submit an essay when another author had to drop out. Tiff Polzin helped prepare the final manuscript and weaseled her way into an exclusive interview with a journalist who had covered the Enumclaw case.
David Southward, as always, gave the wise counsel that I sometimes need to hear.
I have more gratitude than I have space to contain it, so let me just say: thank you to all of the students and colleagues and friends (and occasional strangers) over the years who have dared to say tell me more: you are rarer and more precious than you know.
This book grew out of a project titled “Animal Lovers: Bestiality in the Middle Ages” that won the Olivia Remie Constable Award, granted by the Medieval Academy of America (2015).