Peace Corps Writers imprint books

About books published under the Peace Corps Writers imprint — and how you can do it.

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Phoenix Rising & Reading!
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WALLED IN, WALLED OUT published by Mary Dana Marks (Iran)
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SPIES AND DESERTERS published by Martin Ganzglass (Somalia)
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Mark Walker (Guatemala) publishes DIFFERENT LATITUDES
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Talking with Larry Berube (Morocco)
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Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia) publishes TALES OF FAMILY TRAVEL with Peace Corps Writers
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Larry Berube (Morocco) publishes NUNS, NAM & HENNA
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Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia) publishes TALES OF FAMILY TRAVELS
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LETTERS FROM SUSIE published by Katherine Miller (Ghana)
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Stephen Mustoe (Kenya) publishes BREVITÉ
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Emily Creigh (Paraguay) publishes JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE CONDOR
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David Mather (Chile) publishes CRESCENT BEACH
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John Ashford (Botswana) publishes MEETING THE MANTIS
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David Edmonds (Chile 1963–65) publishes thriller THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS
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Fran Hopkins Irwin and Will Irwin publish The Early Years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan with Peace Corps Writers

Phoenix Rising & Reading!

    Last week in Phoenix there was a “double reading” and an evening of enjoying host country food. Mike Walker (Guatemala 1971-73), who has just published his memoir Different Latitudes with Peace Corps Writers and Mike Stake (India 1966-68), author of Ripples in the Pond — also published by Peace Corps Writers, read from their books, and then invited guests — RPCVs from Moldova, Liberia, Samoa, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela — to share their Peace Corps tales. Of the evening of readings, storytelling, and wonderful home-cooked food, Mark wrote, “My Guatemalan wife, Ligia, brought Guatemalan goodies like black beans and Rosa de Jamaica (hibiscus juice) and Mike and his wife brought Indian delicacies. It made for quite an international exchange. I felt that this is what sharing our books and appreciation of different cultures is all about.” The next such event in downtown Phoenix is on May 25th at the Pomelo Restaurant, hosted by . . .

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WALLED IN, WALLED OUT published by Mary Dana Marks (Iran)

  About Walled In, Walled Out — A Young American Woman in Iran by Mary Dana Marks (Iran 1964–66) • WHILE THE UNITED STATES leaps on and off a collision course with Iran, Americans forget we have not always been enemies. This memoir is set in 1960s Iran, when the Shah reigns, American consultants abound, the word ayatollah is rarely heard, and SAVAK, Iran’s secret police, wields uncompromising power. In the west, Persia evokes images of colorful carpets, wealthy oil sheiks, and glamorous royalty. Leaders of the 1979 Iranian Revolution are in elementary school when Mary  answers  John F. Kennedy’s call to “ask what you can do for your country” and joins the Peace Corps. The setting is Kerman, a conservative provincial capital on the stark Iranian plateau where she’s assigned to teach English to high school girls. Problems soon appear. As she struggles with the basics of everyday life, Iranians . . .

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SPIES AND DESERTERS published by Martin Ganzglass (Somalia)

  About Spies and Deserters — A Novel of the American Revolution by Martin R. Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68) SPIES AND DESERTERS FOLLOWS eighteen-year-old Will Stoner, a Lieutenant in General Henry Knox’s artillery regiment, and his friend, Private Adam Cooper, an African American in the Marblehead Mariners, from the bleak, disease ridden camp at Valley Forge through the cauldron of the summer heat of the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, to the bloody, vicious guerrilla war between Whig and Tory militias and irregulars in southern New Jersey. By drawing on diaries, original letters, military orders and broadsheets, Spies and Deserters creates an accurate picture of the everyday lives of ordinary soldiers, merchants and farmers, women, Whigs, Loyalists and Hessians, all caught up in the revolution. Spies and Deserters is my fourth novel about the American Revolution published by Peace Corps Writers. Like the others in the series, Cannons for the Cause, Tories and Patriots, and Blood Upon . . .

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Mark Walker (Guatemala) publishes DIFFERENT LATITUDES

  SUMMER, 1971. A naïve young man must decide his path upon graduation from a small university in Colorado. Amidst the turmoil of the counterculture years and the looming possibility of being sent to Vietnam, he concludes that he wants to travel, serve, and, if possible, save the world. As a Peace Corps Volunteer Mark embarks on a vigorous cross cultural experience in a Caribbean and two Central American countries, with a final stop in one of the more isolated areas of the highlands of Guatemala. Though beset with a fear of the unknown and feelings of profound isolation due to being the only Volunteer in a remote village, he eventually gets to know and appreciate the people of the rural communities he is privileged to live among. After a near-death experience takes him to another part of Guatemala and eventually to a horse town, Mark meets the love of . . .

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Talking with Larry Berube (Morocco)

  Last month Larry Berube (Morocco 1977–79) published with Peace Corps Writers his memoir Nuns, Nam & Henna: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose.  The poems and prose are recollections from his boyhood experiences at St. Peter’s Orphanage in Manchester, New Hampshire, from the age six to twelve; his time as a young soldier in the U.S. Army with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam; and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco where he worked in small villages of the Middle Atlas Mountain region of Morocco on various water projects. We talked to Larry recently about his life and his new book. •   Larry, you were a PCV from ’77 to ’79. Where were you and what was your job? I was in Beni Mellal, Morocco, which was a provincial capital. But my work took me to small villages in the Middle Atlas mountain region. My job was leading a local government surveying team, which . . .

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Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia) publishes TALES OF FAMILY TRAVEL with Peace Corps Writers

  In Kay Gillies Dixon’s new book, Tales of Family Travel: Bathrooms of the World, she chronicles her family’s globe trotting through Rome, Kenya, Cyprus and parts beyond. Returned Peace Corps Volunteer parents Kevin and Kay Dixon embraced a passion for travel that they hoped to imprint on their four daughters. In the late 1970s, Kevin landed a contract to work in Saudi Arabia. The Dixons could not pack their bags fast enough. This was the opportunity to provide two fundamental values to their children — roots and wings. The author narrates their story with finesse and descriptions that take you along on the journey. Their child-centric exploits lead them to unimaginable experiences that otherwise might have been missed. A day visiting a Maasai settlement nearly takes a deep dive when their precocious toddler wanders away. Determined to go on an elephant safari in Nepal sends them river rafting after their . . .

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Larry Berube (Morocco) publishes NUNS, NAM & HENNA

  Nuns, Nam & Henna: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose has been published by Larry Berube (Morocco 1977–79). The poems and prose  are recollections from his boyhood experiences at St. Peter’s Orphanage in Manchester, New Hampshire, from the age six to twelve; his time as a young soldier in the U.S. Army with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam; and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco where he worked in small villages of the Middle Atlas Mountain region of Morocco on various water projects. Nuns Nam & Henna is an honest, straightforward — and sometimes heartbreaking — account of the author’s story. Larry says that he “writes with humor when he can, and with an absence of victimhood all the time.” Larry Berube was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. He has a B.A. in Writing and Communications from Rivier College. The author lives in Dunedin, Florida. • Nuns, Nam & Henna: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose . . .

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Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia) publishes TALES OF FAMILY TRAVELS

  In Kay Gillies Dixon’s new book, Tales of Family Travel: Bathrooms of the World, she chronicles her family’s globe trotting through Rome, Kenya, Cyprus and parts beyond. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers parents Kevin and Kay Dixon embraced a passion for travel that they hoped to imprint on their four daughters. In the late 1970s, Kevin landed a contract to work in Saudi Arabia. The Dixons could not pack their bags fast enough. This was the opportunity to provide two fundamental values to their children – roots and wings. The author narrates their story with finesse and descriptions that take you along on the journey. Their child-centric exploits lead them to unimaginable experiences that otherwise might have been missed. A day visiting a Maasai settlement nearly takes a deep dive when their precocious toddler wanders away. Determined to go on an elephant safari in Nepal sends them river rafting after . . .

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LETTERS FROM SUSIE published by Katherine Miller (Ghana)

  Susie Bannerman was a shy, gangly, fourteen-year-old high school student when she met Katherine Miller, a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher at her partially-finished boarding school in newly independent Ghana. They bonded quickly and formed a friendship that has lasted over fifty years primarily continuing their relationship by communicating through letters. About fifteen years ago Miller realized that her collection of hundreds of letters from Susie was an incredible chronicle of the life of a woman who had grown up as her country was struggling with its own growing pains. Only nine-years-old when Ghana became independent, Susie and Ghana grew up together. Katherine suggested to Susie the the idea of a making a book of her letters, and Susie agreed immediately. First the letters were transcribed to the computer. Miller wrote background material by hand — her preferred medium — before entering it onto the computer. Susie and her family were involved in much . . .

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Stephen Mustoe (Kenya) publishes BREVITÉ

  About Brevité by Stephen Mustoe (Kenya 1983–84) • Brevité is a collection of concise, imaginative stories that range widely in focus and spirit, from poignant to upbeat, unsettling to comical. In Acceptance a son struggles to deal with his mentally ill mother’s impending death. In Dogfish Blues and Blind Faith a young boy, later a teenager, survives hilarious yet terrifying adventures in the company of his outrageous uncle. Parallel Lives has an ailing man considering a series of malaria-induced recollections that might or might not be real. A young woman tries to make sense of a quirky accident that spared her life in Encounter. Each of my brief stories has its basis in either personal experience or an event related by a friend or acquaintance. Nevertheless they are all fictional works, which gave me liberty to make things up as I went along. And that was the truly enjoyable part. . . .

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Emily Creigh (Paraguay) publishes JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE CONDOR

  Journey to the Heart of the Condor: Love, Loss, and Survival in a South American Dictatorship is the story of author Emily Creigh’s Peace Corps service in Paraguay from 1975 to 1977, during the height of repression carried out by the U.S.-backed Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship in its push to rid the country of political “dissidents” (a term conveniently applied to anyone opposed to the dictator). Creigh’s touching and humorous story of personal transformation unfolds against the backdrop of the regime’s brutality as related by co-author Dr. Martín Almada, a Paraguayan attorney and educator. Dr. Almada became one of the first victims of Operation Condor — the covert international campaign of state terrorism — and spent nearly three years in prison after being falsely accused of being a communist sympathizer. The two narratives overlap in a heartrending yet inspirational story of patriotism, sacrifice, and redemption. A recent college graduate struggling to . . .

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David Mather (Chile) publishes CRESCENT BEACH

About the suspense novel Crescent Beach just published by David Mather (Chile 1968–70): Cardboard-wrapped, forty-pound bales of marijuana called “square grouper” are flooding Florida’s Gulf Coast. Undercover State Trooper Rusty McMillan is sent into the fishing village of Crescent Beach to bust a key operator in the drug trade, and stem the area’s rampant smuggling. Expecting to deal with trailer trash, Rusty instead discovers the town is a hardworking community from an earlier era when life was simple and straightforward. He becomes immersed in the everyday life of shrimping, crabbing, and fishing, while at night he drinks beer, arm wrestles, and plays poker with the locals who become his friends. Rusty eventually gets the evidence he needs, but can he make the arrest? Either way he’s a traitor: to his job or to the community. But, before he can decide, the town is slammed by unexpected hurricane force winds and a . . .

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John Ashford (Botswana) publishes MEETING THE MANTIS

John Ashford was a library director at Seattle Community College for almost twenty years when he decided he needed a change of scenery, a change of activity, and a dose of another culture. In preparation he obtained a certification as a teacher of English as a Second Language. Then, both he and his wife Genevieve ended their careers and went to Botswana in 1990 with the Peace Corps as teachers. John spent his two years as a lecturer in library studies at Tonota College of Education. Facing the end of their Peace Corps service in Botswana, the Ashfords began making plans for travel with the purpose of learning more about the San, an indigenous people of Southern Africa — also known as the Kalahari Bushmen. Years earlier, while still in college, John had been introduced to the Kalahari Bushmen in an anthropology class and had retained a fascination with them. . . .

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David Edmonds (Chile 1963–65) publishes thriller THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS

David writes — A cave in Nicaragua. A wall of mysterious glyphs. Pirate gold. What could possibly go wrong? Jennifer McMullen-Cruz, a Smithsonian specialist in ancient writing, is on a mission to find a mysterious “glyph” cave in Nicaragua. But no sooner does she arrive than she’s set upon by a gang of tomb looters who are also searching for the cave, not for glyphs, but for pirate gold. They’ve already killed one of her associates, and now they’re after her. Things get messy when she falls into a spiral of romance and intrigue with a handsome stranger at the US Embassy. And messier still when her cheating husband wants her back. Her life is further complicated by an obnoxious reporter who dogs her every step and an old Indian couple who may or may not be spirits. But her greatest challenge is in that cave in Nicaragua, written in . . .

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Fran Hopkins Irwin and Will Irwin publish The Early Years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan with Peace Corps Writers

This month Frances Hopkins Irwin (Afghanistan 1964–67) and Will A. Irwin (Afghanistan 1966–67) published The Early Years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan: A Promising Time with Peace Corps Writers. Here’s what they say about their book: The Peace Corps in Afghanistan The first four years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan was a promising time. Nine Volunteers, perhaps the smallest Peace Corps program around the world, arrived in 1962. They were greeted with skepticism and all placed in Kabul. What skills could they contribute? Wouldn’t their presence cause trouble in this country bordering the Soviet Union? The Early Years tells how within a year the five teachers, three nurses, and a mechanic had demonstrated their skills, how they and the following Volunteers connected with the Afghan community through jazz, folk music, and basketball and used sawdust stoves to avoid paying for oil. By 1966, over 200 Peace Corps Volunteers were serving . . .

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