Jane Albritton Editor of Recent Peace Corps Books at the Tattered Cover in Denver
Thanks, Joey. I have to say it has been a humbling experience to represent the many voices that appear in…
Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) who conceived and also edited with other RPCVs four volumes of Peace Corps literature will be at the Tattered Cover Book Store on Friday, December 2, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. She will be signing books.
The Tattered Cover is at 2526 East Colfax in Denver. It is famous as an independent bookstore that has survived much chain competition. In the ‘days of e-books’ this is an amazing store with millions of real books!
Jane, who earned a master’s degree in English, taught freshman composition at Southern Methodist University, then served as the writing specialist for the SMU School of Law created in 1980 Tiger Enterprises, a company for writing, editing, and instruction. Several years ago, she came up with the idea of publishing stories from the Peace Corps. All the books are published by Travelers’ Tales, an Imprint of Solas House, Inc. in Palo Alto, California.
They are:
Africa-One Hand Does Not Catch A Buffalo edited by Aaron Barlow (Togo 1988-90)
The Americas – Gather The Fruit One By One, edited by Barnie Alter (Paraguary 1970-72) and Pat Alter (India 1967-69 & Paraguary 1970-72)
The Heart of Eurasia – A Small Key Opens Big Doors, edited by Jay Chen (Kazakhstan 2005-08)
Asia and the Pacific – Even The Smallest Crab Has Teeth, edited by Jane Albritton (India 1967-69)
The intention of these collected stories, according to Jane, is not to trap the Peace Corps experience in a pretty piece of amber. Rather, bringing the world home in many voices, responding to an implicit question that President Kennedy might have liked: What can our combined stories offer our country as a guide in a world where people are closer, tensions higher, and the importance of understanding each other greater than ever? Now is a good time to find out.
Check out Jane’s site at: http://www.peacecorpsat50.org/
Tattered Cover: http://www.tatteredcover.com/event/2011/12/02/day
This series is wonderful. The more I read the stories, the more I can appreciate Jane’s vision and determination.
I began with “The Americas – Gather Fruit One by One.” Those stories were about my world – Latin America and I felt so much at home. I was back on the bus! “Africa-One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo” has beautiful stories. I have never been to Africa, but so many of the Peace Corps Experience books are by African RPCVs and so the background seemed familiar. Eurasia (“A Small Key Opens Big Doors”) and Asia and the Pacific (“Even the Smallest Crab has Teeth”) were about countries and cultures all new to me.
I realized that I trust the perspective of Peace Corps Volunteers.
That is how I want to learn about the rest of the world.
So, to Jane, her writers and editors: Thank you and Congratulations.
Thanks, Joey. I have to say it has been a humbling experience to represent the many voices that appear in the books. There is so much heart and insight in these stories. It took four years to bring this part of the Peace Corps saga together, but I think that together we have made a good contribution to understanding something of the strength, sorrow, zest, and beauty of places that rarely make the 6 o’clock news.