Albanian Diary

Travel Writing. Cultural Studies. For one hot week in June of 1995, poet Ron Padgett toured little-known, isolated Albania, in the company of five fellow American and several Albanian writers and editors. With his lively interest in languages, keen eye for detail, and growing sympathy for the difficulties of the long, repressive period from which Albania was just emerging, Padgett documents the country's sights and sounds, its people and places, and its many surprises. His deft prose shines a clear light on this enigmatic country and its fiercely proud people, so hospitable to strangers, so potentially explosive among themselves. Ron Padgett serves as Publications Director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative and teaches Imaginative Writing at Columbia University.