Many Ribera Authors’ books first appeared in print as limited editions that survive today only in private libraries and used bookstores.
Thanks to Amazon, editions of these works are becoming available to readers worldwide and appear for the first time on Kindle.
The late James Tipton‘s collection of short poems titled Washing Dishes In The Ancient Village is only one of his earlier books later republished on Amazon. (Each poem appears both in English and Spanish.)
Here’s a 2009 YouTube clip of Jim discussing the work’s genesis and reading from it.
Browse local authors – and find links to their Amazon books and reviews – in our Authors Gallery.
Every time I’ve heard the title of Jim’s book, I was reminded of a long-ago trip to Melaque when no one knew where Melaque was and San Pancho was barely more than a crossroads scratched in the dirt. Driving down a forsaken street I spotted a mother in her outdoor kitchen with a string of stairstep children. The one that was about three grinning and waving his arms like a bird in the warm sunshine. He stood in the poured concrete sink — one of those one does everything combo hand laundry board and dishwashing vat as mother sluiced dipper after dipper of air temperature water over his head, down into his eyes and dripping off his nose and fingertips. He danced and posed from his high stage, clowning for the other three soapy tots awaiting their turn for the rinse cycle.
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Thanks so much for sharing this memory!
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