Why did the girls worry terribly? The title was found in Oliver Statler's book, The Black Ship Scroll. This has been an important book to Devota's partner, Brandon Shimoda. A caption beneath a sketch of two women in kimonos reads: "The foreigners said they wanted to take pictures of beautiful Japanese ladies, so the government officials ordered that some of the singing girls be chosen as subjects. Later a rumor spread that anyone who was photographed would die within three years, and the girls worried terribly." There was a deep-rooted superstition about having one's portrait made: the soul might leave to take up residence in the "new self," causing the fatal "shadow-sickness."

Dot Devota is the author of The Division of Labor (Rescue Press, 2015), And The Girls Worried Terribly (Noemi Press, 2014), and The Eternal Wall (BookThug, 2013). Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she writes prose about the Midwest and has traveled full-time since 2010. Excerpts from her book, MW: A Field Guide to the Midwest (Pages from a Diary Never Written) are published in PEN America, The Offing, Fanzine, Entropy, Make Magazine, Denver Quarterly, and The Volta. Her poems have been translated into Arabic and French and appear on walls.