Like Huck Finn, Aaron Allbright was born in Missouri and grew up on the banks of the Mississippi.

He spent three years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone before traveling overland through other parts of Africa for a year and crossing the Sahara twice.

Later, he called Saudi Arabia (eight months) and France (four years) home.

In Paris, he was a member of the Union des Artistes and acted at the Duncan Theater in the Rue de Seine and at the Theatre de l’Atelier in Montmartre.

He and his spouse trekked extensively in the Himalaya before settling in Orange County, California.

For the past seven years, they have lived in New Zealand with two cats, two dogs, sheep, cows and a donkey named Don Quixote. The Land Near Oz is his first memoir.

Aaron Allbright has degrees in Russian Area Studies, Russian literature, and linguistics and has taught in Sierra Leone–West Africa; Saudi Arabia; Paris; the University of California Irvine; and was a tenured professor at Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA.