"I wrote short stories in elementary school," she told an interviewer for
AAYA, "but never showed them to anyone. I wrote a lot of school papers but never fiction." It wasn't until 1991, after working for several years as a technical writer, that Abelove began to experiment with the novel genre. "A friend had decided to take a writing class at [New York City's] New School, and I took it with him. I still take the class. So my writing really came late in life, but I have always loved to read."
Visit to Peru Makes Lasting Impression
After high school graduation, Abelove enrolled at Barnard College, and graduated in 1966. Six years later, in 1972, as a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at the City University of New York, Abelove and a friend went to live in the Peruvian jungle. After spending two years in the Amazon basin studying local tribes, Abelove returned to the United States and changed her academic focus to cultural anthropology. Receiving her doctorate in 1978, she taught undergraduate anthropology for several years before leaving the field to begin a new career as a technical writer.
Although she would never return to the Peruvian jungle, Abelove realized she had been through something that would change her life.
This is a free page. This page contains 200 words. This
biography contains 2,693 words (approx. 9 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Joan Abelove Access Pass.
