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Pete Fortenbaugh
Pete Fortenbaugh, whose family roots on the Delmarva Peninsula date back to 1693, was born and raised in Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. He attended Kent County public sch...view morePete Fortenbaugh, whose family roots on the Delmarva Peninsula date back to 1693, was born and raised in Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. He attended Kent County public schools through ninth grade, attended Gunston Day School and graduated from Washington College in Chestertown with a major in Hispanic Studies and a minor in Creative Writing. His degree in Hispanic Studies took him throughout Latin America, first to Costa Rica and Nicaragua for four months, then to Ecuador and Peru for five months, and finally to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia for eight months. After graduating, Pete moved to Spain for four years with his French-born girlfriend Cécilia Karelidze. While there he taught English in public and private schools, and in 2018 completed a Masters in Teaching through the Universidad de Alcalá, then spent eight months in Dakar, Senegal teaching English and improving his French. While he had throughout college written about the fictional Chesapeake island, Johnsontown, based in part on family lore and familiarity, he spent five months in 2015 working as a carpenter on the isolated island of Tangier, VA. That experience grounded his writing in place, forged deep friendships and inspired many stories, though he has been building a collection of stories of Johnsontown. Years abroad only intensified his love for the truly wondrous ecosystem and community that is the Chesapeake Bay, especially its Eastern Shore on the Delmarva Peninsula. Writing Johnsontown stories is a way of connecting with cherished ideas of family, friends and home. Pete now lives in Chestertown, MD, where he works for the Master Fine Woodworker, Vicco von Voss, producing high-end furniture and timber frame buildings. He spends one day each week having adventures with his special needs cousin, and in his free time races on log canoes, wanders the marshes, fishes, hunts, and explores the Chesapeake and its endless tributaries and communities.view less