I am proof that “it’s never too late.” Maybe you remember Grandma Moses who began painting folk art in earnest when she was 78 years old and enjoyed a successful career for the next twenty years. She and I have a common bond. Without being specific I’ll just say I’m seventy-something and was thrilled to be publishing my first novel in December 2019, which is further evidence that it’s never too late.
I grew up in Ames, Iowa, a small Midwestern college town, secure in a loving family and community. I could ride my bike to the school yard on Saturday and play softball late into the afternoon. Or walk to a campus town restaurant after school with girlfriends for a lime coke and a plate of French fries. My parents stretched the family budget to include piano and dance lessons for me and my older sister. By junior high, my friends and I viewed all our school teachers as old maids who required us to conjugate verbs in Latin class and recite passages from Longfellow in front of our classmates. My senior year in high school one of those teachers ignited a spark in World Lit class that led me to choose English as a major in college. A few years later while studying twentieth century Europe, I discovered history was a second love, almost as great as English.
Each summer our family embarked on the highlight of the year—a trip to visit our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Utah. It was like stepping into another world from the prairie of Iowa into the rugged beauty of the Wasatch Mountains that rose near my grandparent’s farm. It was here I first heard my immigrant grandparents speak Italian and refer to the “old country.” It was here I heard the stories of their rough and tumble life in the coal mining town of Cumberland, Wyoming, their first home in America.
My grandparents were ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and their stories of the coal mining town stayed with me. In telling their story I came to realize the world was and is full of such people, whose stories we should tell. Everyday courage and sacrifice, everyday determination and faith are worthy of sharing and showing us the way forward. Finding stories from our collective history and sharing them through writing brings me great satisfaction and, I hope, enjoyment to readers.
My husband and I reside in the Sunflower State of Kansas. I sing with two choral groups, research our family tree when I have the gumption, finished sewing my third quilt, try to grow flowers every summer, and love reading books that stay with me long after I’ve finished them. Our son lives in San Antonio, our daughter in Omaha and with grandchildren now in college, our world continues to expand. We are blessed beyond measure.
Official Bio
Award winning author Jane Coletti Perry’s second novel, Lila’s Journey, will be released summer 2024. Her short story “Lila’s Song” won Women Writing the West LAURA Award (2021) and is the prequel to Lila’s Journey. Her previous historical fiction novel, Marcello’s Promise (2019), was inspired by her family’s immigrant story. She loves nothing more than digging into history and discovering unique stories unless it’s bringing those stories to life through writing. An English major, Perry graduated from Iowa State University and participates in writer’s workshops, conferences, and local writing groups.
When she’s not writing, Jane is singing in a choir, exercising in some fashion, or soaking up nature from a shady spot in the yard with a good book. She and her husband live in Kansas and have two children and six grandchildren. She treasures time spent with their far-flung family and still entertains the fantasy of appearing on Dancing with the Stars for Grandmas, although the clock is ticking. . .
Jane is a member of Women Writing the West, Western Writers of America, and Wyoming Writers, Inc.