Happily Lost in Time and Place

HAPPILY LOST IN TIME AND PLACE brings together over two dozen stories and poems by Erika Atkinson, inspired by her over fifty years of travel from a one-room country school house in Manitoba to all parts of the globe. Since she was eighteen, and forMoreHAPPILY LOST IN TIME AND PLACE brings together over two dozen stories and poems by Erika Atkinson, inspired by her over fifty years of travel from a one-room country school house in Manitoba to all parts of the globe. Since she was eighteen, and for all the years she has remained so, Erika has wondered and wandered about the earth, never searching (that, alas, would require a prior purpose), but always finding. Most of all she has found - or has become - the Rosetta Stone of the human condition- the strength, the humor, the guile, and the quirks that connect us all, from joyful Parisian bar hustlers to cold war, warm-hearted Soviet peddlers. Even a love-lorn, Antarctic penguin is only human. They all have a story - we all have a story - and Erika reminds us that a good story must be told, and told well. - Michael Welch Erika Atkinson was born on the prairies of central Canada, in southern Manitoba, into a family of penurious Russian Mennonite immigrants. There she spent her childhood and young adulthood until age eighteen. Having little interest in formal higher education, she instead began preparing to join the Canadian Foreign Service. She came to Washington, D.C., via Ottawa, Canada, a journey that became the ignition point of her travel interests. She lived and worked as an academic administrative assistant in schools, colleges, and universities in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Now long retired from the nine-to-five, she continues to expand her archive of travels and travel experiences. She lives happily in San Franciscos Castro neighborhood.