Memories of Sun: Stories of Africa and America Book

What is it like to grow up in different parts of Africa today?

And what's it like to be a child of two cultures — an American living in Africa, or an African living in America?

In South Africa visit the Bushman Farm, where a lonely girl meets a group of Bushmen who are making their living as a tourist attraction — and finds friendship and family as she's never known them before. In Tanzania join an American family on an unforgettable safari whose highlights include a broken car, a camp of armed men, heat, tsetse flies, and laughter. In Los Angeles be surprised by what happens when a teenage veteran from war in Sierra Leone comes into conflict with a local gang leader.

Jane Kurtz, who is herself a child of two cultures — Ethiopia and America — has gathered a remarkable collection of voices. These twelve stories and three poems sing of Africa, of America, and of people changing, growing, crying, and laughing under the same sun.

About the Author

Jane Kurtz was born in Portland, Oregon, but moved to Ethiopia when she was two years old and lived there for most of her childhood. She visited Boise, Idaho, for one year when she was seven, and she spent one year in Pasadena, California, when she was thirteen.

As an adult, she has spent time in several African countries but lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where she teaches part time in the English department at the University of North Dakota. She says, "My whole life has been shaped by that feeling of never being able to go home again. Luckily for me, my writing can transport me anyplace in the world."

Jane Kurtz is the author of both picturebooks and novels, and her titles include The Storyteller's Beads and Faraway Home.

This is a collection of twelve stories and three poems with a focus on young people at turning points in their lives. The anthology is divided into three sections: Africa, African Americans in Africa and Africans in America.