Dartmouth College welcomes a New Hampshire-born fiction writer to the campus. The Department of English presents a prose reading by the novelist Laurie Alberts, who will read from her latest book "The Price of Land in Shelby" this afternoon.
Alberts actually has strong ties to the town of Hanover. Her publishing house, University Press of New England, is located on Main Street. Alberts has previously published a collection of short stories and another novel, "Tempting Fate."
With this latest edition to her repertoire, Alberts clearly expresses the close ties she has developed with the land and people of Vermont.
Alberts was born in an industrial mill town so distinctive to the New Hampshire landscape. Her family moved to Boston so that she could attend better schools, but she returned to northern New England as an adult. She currently lives in Vermont with her husband and his family.
"I'm accustomed to being an outsider -- not a bad viewpoint for a writer, although uncomfortable for a kid," states Alberts on her craft as a writer. The observatory outpost so comfortable for Alberts has led her to write about issues that have affected her family.
The concept of "The Price of Land in Shelby" came from watching her husband's family struggle with losing their farming land. As farms began to die and land was bought up for development, a large section of Vermont's population -- people who had dug their roots deep into Vermont soil for many years -- were left dispossessed and unsure of their place in life.
Alberts is a writer who absorbs her surroundings and strives to understand the texture of her culture by weaving stories and wrapping words into the shape of what she has personally witnessed. A vividly candid, true account of one family's struggle with their land over a thirty year period unfolds during this novel.
Her prose is clear, uncluttered and natural. She writes about the elements of family that disrupt and enrich everyone's lives. Her direct writing style compliments this narrative that might be describing a family in the immediate radius of Dartmouth College. Alberts currently teaches in the Norwich University Graduate Program and is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of New Mexico. She was the recipient of the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Award for Short Fiction.
Her reading will take place today at 4:00 p.m. in the Wren Room, Sanborn Library.
