Peace Corps writers – Page 4 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Garrard Conley (Ukraine) — author of BOY ERASED winner of a Macdowell Fellowship

Jul 07 2023

Garrard Conley |Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Garrard Conley (Ukraine 2007-10) has been awarded a prestigious MacDowell Fellowship that he will engage in during two weeks in late September 2023. Adding his name to a list that includes one of his literary heroes, James Baldwin, Conley’s name can now be found among illustrious artists such as Willa Cather, Leonard Bernstein, and Nell Painter, all of whom are past recipients. Conley expressed his shock and gratitude at becoming a MacDowell Fellowship recipient saying, “I was so thrilled that I almost didn’t even have a reaction. I didn’t know what to do.” He started applying for this fellowship when he was 21 and had been applying every eligible year since “thinking, there’s no way I’ll ever get in, but I’m just going to do it.” The MacDowell Fellowship was established in 1907 by Marian and Edward MacDowell and was initially funded . . .

SILENT LIGHT | A new novel by Mark Jacobs (Paraguay)

Jun 30 2023

Silent Light by Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) OB Books October 2023 340 pages $18.95 (Paperback) At the start of Mark Jacob’s remarkable new novel ― his first book in thirteen years ― thirty-seven-year-old Smith wins a “stash” of diamonds in a poker game. The only catch: he has to find them. A Louisiana native, Smith is currently employed on an oil platform off the west coast of Africa, while the diamonds are somewhere in the immense, war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. But Smith’s grown tired of the platform and he hates the idea of wasting a full house. One last adventure, he tells himself, and then, diamonds or no diamonds, he’s heading home to Louisiana. In Kinshasa, Smith meets a young woman named Béatrice, who hails from a village on the other side of the country. But this village, she tells Smith, is where his diamonds are . . .

Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso) — GOODBYE TO CLOCKS TICKING

Jun 22 2023

Goodbye to Clocks Ticking By Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975–77) Steerforth Publishing March. 2023 208 pages $9.99 (Kindle); $16.99 (Hardcover), (Audiobook) An uplifting journey of truly seeing and appreciating what makes life worth living in the year following a terminal diagnosis • Goodbye to Clocks Ticking is an unforgettable book that tells the story of a singular year of challenges, insights, and peculiar gifts. It is also a sort of postcard from a place many of us will one day visit. After thirty-two years of teaching, Joe Monninger, an avid outdoorsman in robust health, was looking forward to a long retirement with the love of his life in a cabin beside a New England estuary. Three days after his last class, however, he’s diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, even though he has not smoked for more than 30 years. It was May, and he might be dead by early fall. Soon . . .

WORDS CREATE WORLDS: Poems by Ada Jo Mann (Chad)

Jun 18 2023

Words Create Worlds: Poems Ada Jo Mann (Chad 1967-69) Peace Corps Writers 147 pages April 2023 $14.99 (paperback) Words Create Worlds is a collection of poems that span the life of the author, Ada Jo Mann, who grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Chad from 1967-69. Her Peace Corps service led to a career in international development which took her to many countries around the world where she focused on building strong communities and organizations using a strength-based approach to change called Appreciative Inquiry. Upon the author’s retirement, she began taking courses at the independent bookstore, Politics and Prose, in Washington, DC. As a participant in the Poetry Circle she was inspired to try her hand at poetry and this collection of her poems was the result. In addition to the international focus of her poems, the author writes about memories of . . .

“Test Preparation Authority” Lin Lougheed (Turkey)

Jun 14 2023

Dr. Lin Lougheed (Turkey 1968-70) is universally recognized as the leading authority in test preparation. As a best-selling author he has helped millions of English language learners prepare for the IELTS, TOEFL, and TOEIC exams. In addition to his test preparation books, teachers around the world in middle schools through university use his books to teach listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. Dr. Lougheed started his EFL career in 1968 as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey. He earned his doctorate in International Educational Development a joint program of the School of International Affairs, Columbia University and Teachers College, Columbia University. He has received two Fulbright awards: a scholar grant in Sri Lanka and a professor grant in Tunisia. In 1983, he founded Instructional Design International, Inc. to develop English teaching materials in all media. Lin is a past member of the TESOL Executive Board, and has served as . . .

WAYWARD GUILT by H.M.S. Brown (Bulgaria)

Jun 13 2023

H.M.S. Brown (Yes – her real initials!) is an avid knitter, crocheter, and a voracious reader who stumbled into writing during lockdown in 2020 after complaining to her mom about a book she didn’t like. When her mom challenged her to write her own, the small town of Grant’s Crossing, Ohio, was born. H.M.S. Brown is a graduate of both Indiana University and The Ohio State University, as well as a returned Peace Corps volunteer,(Bulgaria 2001-02) so be prepared to see occasional mentions of the Hoosiers, the Buckeyes, and all things Bulgarian within her novels. She lives in central Ohio, doing the bidding of her evil, yet adorable cat, Michonne, along with keeping a day job to maintain a roof over her books and yarn stash. Wayward Guilt is H.M.S. Brown’s debut novel and Book 1 of her Heroes of Grant’s Crossing series. • Wayward Guilt H.M.S. Brown (Bulgaria . . .

“A Road Not Taken” by Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia)

Jun 09 2023

A Road Not Taken Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia 1970-72; APCD 1974-76) June 6, 2023 • Now that I am of a certain age, I’m giving myself permission to occasionally recount a story that has been locked away in my personal vault. This is one of those times… It was nearly fifty years ago, and I was working on the staff of the Peace Corps in Tunisia. (I had previously served as a Volunteer in that country, but that’s another story.) One day, word reached me that a Volunteer who was under my supervision was absenting himself from his job, ostensibly taking some time to watch a movie that was being filmed at a location out in the desert, not far from his work site. It would be a long drive, but I thought this would be a good time to go visit some of my Volunteers in the south. . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | May — June 2023

Jun 05 2023

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers to order a book and/or to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our . . .

SOFTBALL, SNAKES, SAUSAGE FLIES AND RICE | Philip Fretz (Sierra Leone)

Jun 02 2023

Softball, Snakes, Sausage Flies and Rice: Peace Corps Experience in 1960s Sierra Leone by Philip Fretz (Sierra Leone 1962-64) Self Published January 2014 148 pages $0 (Kindle); $5.99 (Paperback) Just a few months out of student life on the rolling green lawns of Haverford College, Philip Fretz was living in a small, remote West African city amid insect invasions, deadly snakes and coups. It was the tumultuous 1960s, in both the United States and Africa, and he had become an early recruit to the Peace Corps, founded in 1961. He was the first volunteer to be sent to teach English at the Kenema Technical Institute in Sierra Leone, a former British colony that had been left in stark poverty and underdevelopment when colonialism ended. Half a century later, he began to pore through the diaries he had kept, sporadically, during those two years in Kenema. When his father died in . . .

KEEPER OF THE STARS by Don Dirnberger (West Indies)

May 31 2023

Keeper of the Stars is the first volume of poems from the series Making My Dreams Reality by Donald Drinberger. The words began before his trip to El Salvador but continued and finished while doing a Global Village Build with Habitat for Humanity International and HFH El Salvador. The members of the team, the people of the country of El Salvador, the families who wanted to construct their new homes with the understanding that a home is the starting point of a better life and a better world, to them and for them. In these words, these poems may you also share time with fellow human beings in changing this world for the betterment of all, one home at a time. The author, Donald Dirnberger (West Indies 1977-79), lives now on the Grey Wolf Resort and Ranch near Victor, Colorado where he enjoys gardening, raising animals, along with writing. . . .

Bob Vila (Panama) remembers “This Old House“

May 24 2023

Bob Vila (Panama 1969-70) The project manager turned television host built home renovation entertainment. by KAREN HERMAN There was a time before home improvement shows existed, but a likeable project manager named Bob Vila changed that. After Vila restored his own Boston home and was asked to host a local television show to explain the process, the public’s interest in home renovation was unleashed and a new category of entertainment was born. For nearly thirty years Vila hosted multiple shows, starting with This Old House on PBS, then moving on to Bob Vila’s Home Again, Bob Vila and Restore America with Bob Vila. In the nineties, Vila appeared as a guest on the ABC comedy Home Improvement, acting along Tim Allen as a TV handyman. Today Vila’s videos are popular on YouTube and can also be seen at his website, BobVila.com. Vila was awarded a Daytime Emmy lifetime achievement award in 2022, and he’s also the author . . .

THE WAR CAME TO US by Christopher Miller (Ukraine)

May 23 2023

The War Came to Us by Christopher Miller (Ukraine 2010-12) Bloomsbury Continuum Publisher 400 pages July 2023 $9.99 (Kindle) $28.00 (Hardcover) pre-order, audiobook • A breathtaking exploration of Ukraine’s past, present, and future, and a heartbreaking account of the war against Russia, written by the leading journalist of the conflict, former PCV Christopher Miller (Ukraine 2010-12). When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine just before dawn on 24 February 2022, it marked his latest and most overt attempt to brutally conquer the country, and reshaped the world order. Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times and the foremost journalist covering the country, was there on the ground when the first Russian missiles struck and troops stormed over the border. But the seeds of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the West were sown more than a decade earlier. This is the definitive, inside story of its . . .

Words of Wisdom from Wise Older Women | Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon)

May 22 2023

The WOW Factor: Words of Wisdom from Wise Older Women Martha is a Marvel Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98) May 22, 2023 Martha Stewart is a marvel, don’t you agree? She’s a quintessential American success story, and Americans love success stories more than any other kind. From her modest beginnings as the second of six children in a working-class Polish-Catholic family in Nutley, New Jersey, Martha has risen to great heights, succeeding on every rung of her personal ladder, and climbing back up when she’s fallen off. She’s been a fashion model, a Wall Street stockbroker, an entrepreneur par excellence known worldwide as “the empress of domesticity,” a prison inmate, and now, at age eight-one no less featured in a bathing suit on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s just-published swimsuit issue. It takes your breath away. When I was a caterer in Manhattan from ’86 to ‘96, Martha was the caterer other . . .

Mary-Joan Gerson (Nigeria) | Children’s Author

May 22 2023

Mary-Joan Gerson, Ph.D., ABPP, is an Adjunct Clinical Professor, Supervisor and has served as the Director of the Advanced Specialization in Couple and Family Therapy at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Active in Division 39 of the APA, Dr. Gerson is the Founding President of Section VIII, Couples and Family Therapy, as well as Founding Co-Chair of the Committee on Psychoanalysis and Health, and the Committee on Psychoanalysis and Community. She is the author of many journal articles and book chapters including a full-length book, The Embedded Self: An Integrative Psychodynamic and Systemic Perspective on Couples and Family Therapy (second edition. 2009); Routledge. She has served in Nigeria (1965-67) in the Peace Corps, had a Fulbright Fellowship in Namibia, and has taught all over the world, as well as published five award-winning cross-cultural books for children: People of Corn: A Mayan Story Why The Sky Is . . .

“It’s time to embrace community-led conservation . . ., ” Audrey Moreng (Fiji)

May 17 2023

“. . . vs. the colonial kind” (a commentary) by Audrey Moreng (Fiji 2018-2000) 15 May 2023 Conservation NGOs often enter countries like Fiji and advise local and Indigenous communities on how to protect their land and sea territories, or worse, acquire land and preclude the traditional residents from it. More NGOs are embracing community-led conservation, though, and we must embrace this, a new op-ed by a former Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji argues. “Fiji does not need new ideas on how to protect their ‘iqoliqoli’ (marine areas). Instead, Fiji has a lot to teach the rest of the world,” the author writes. This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. When I lived on the remote island of Beqa, in Fiji, I watched as foreign-based NGOs entered villages and told Fijians how to live their lives, saying things like . . .