Three Reasons to Read the Acknowledgements

Generally speaking, the acknowledgments are a thank you note from the author to everyone who helped them take an idea they had and turn it into a book. But that’s not all they are.

For 29 years, I largely ignored them. But when I read Conjure Women by Afia Atakora, I enjoyed the novel so much that I decided to read the acknowledgments. And I’ve been reading acknowledgments ever since. I figured out there’s actually a lot to be learned from them. Here are three reasons that I think you should start reading acknowledgments too:

Photos courtesy of arsenalpulp.com (left) and penguinrandomhouse.com (right).

Photos courtesy of penguinrandomhouse.com

1. Acknowledgments can reveal a lot about the author’s personality and process. A good example is Francesca Ekwuyasi's acknowledgments for Butter Honey Pig Bread. Though she keeps them short and sweet, her personality shines through. We can see that she loves and feels supported by her family and friends and that her short fiction has been published in several magazines, which motivated her to keep writing. She also states that she received a grant that allowed her to complete some of the research for the novel and did a lot of her writing in coffee shops and bars.
2. They often contain interesting information, sources, or resources. In Sara Novic’s acknowledgments for True Biz, she thanks the teams and people who created the graphic elements of the novel and provided valuable feedback. Similarly, in her acknowledgments for The House at the Edge of Night, Catherine Banner sights many of the stories, non-fiction works, and people who helped her write the sweeping, beautiful family saga.
3. Lastly, acknowledgments can provide additional information about a story’s origins and pay homage to the real people who contributed to the creation of fictional characters. In the acknowledgments for A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel Allende reports that she “had to imagine very little” when writing the novel. She also writes that she first learned about the Winnipeg, a ship transporting refugees of the Spanish Civil War to Chile, in her childhood. That recollection stuck with Allende for forty years before she sat down to write the novel. She then lists and pays tribute to the real people on whom she based the fictional characters of her novel.

Writing a novel of any length is an enormous undertaking that most of us can only imagine. Even when the writing is done, it takes an entire team of people to turn a manuscript into a novel ready to be shelved in bookstores and libraries. So it makes sense that authors would want to end their work with a thank you note. But acknowledgments aren’t just for authors. They often contain information that can be of interest to readers. Next time you read a good book, I double-dare you to read the acknowledgments too.