Ukraine

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KILL THE MAGESTRATE . . . A PLAY by Abbey Fenbert (Ukraine)
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Garrard Conley (Ukraine) — author of BOY ERASED winner of a Macdowell Fellowship
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THE WAR CAME TO US by Christopher Miller (Ukraine)
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Connor H. O’Brien (Ukraine) Peace Corps Volunteer says: Choose violence
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Courtney Copeland (Ukraine) welcomes Ukraine refugees
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Sherry Morris (Ukraine) — Short story and Flash Fiction Writer
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New books by Peace Corps writers | November-December 2022
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Review — BABUSYA’S KITCHEN by Ukraine RPCVs
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DEAR MICHELLE, LETTERS FROM AN OLD FRIEND IN A NEW LIFE by Samuel Gerard (Ukraine)
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RPCV–made beer to help Ukraine
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Review — AWKWARD STUMBLES AND FUZZY MEMORIES by Kathy Ivchenko (Ukraine)
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RPCV Sabra Ayres (Ukraine) covers her host country for LA TIMES
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To Peel Potatoes

KILL THE MAGESTRATE . . . A PLAY by Abbey Fenbert (Ukraine)

In the news —   The Kiev Independent  by Abbey Fenbert (Ukraine 2008-11)   On a moonlit autumn night circa 1600-something, six women gather in the woods of an unnamed New England town to plot the murder of their local magistrate. But as the night wears on, the trees seem determined to deliver messages and strange objects fall from the sky — and the conspirators’ varying reasons for wanting the magistrate dead start to threaten their alliance. This energetic, heightened, time-bending new play askstheage-old question: when you violently overthrowthepatriarchy, how do you avoid replacing it with something worse? Thanks to the support of tireless Boston theater champion Jack Welch, this residency gives Boston University alumni writers 30 hours of development time to explore, evolve, and experiment with collaborators. The playwright workshops their play-in-progress and shares it in a public reading. We hope you’ll join us here at Boston’s Playwrights’ Theatre on Dec. 4, and . . .

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

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 . . .

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THE WAR CAME TO US by Christopher Miller (Ukraine)

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 . . .

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Connor H. O’Brien (Ukraine) Peace Corps Volunteer says: Choose violence

  Why words like ‘diplomacy,’ ‘ceasefire’ and ‘negotiations’ are such rubbish in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine   The EAGLE American University   I will never forget the day I arrived in Ukraine to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was a cool September afternoon, several months after I graduated from American University. After landing in Kyiv, my fellow Americans and I were whisked off to the northern city of Chernihiv for orientation. On the bus ride, as we fought against jet lag and looked out upon expansive fields of wheat, a Ukrainian woman who worked for the Peace Corps addressed us. She explained that our orientation would be in an old Soviet-era hotel and that we needed to put our luggage in the basement upon arrival. She went on to explain that the basement was built to be a bomb shelter during the Cold War. . . .

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Courtney Copeland (Ukraine) welcomes Ukraine refugees

Alum of Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey CA sponsoring a Ukrainian Alum’s Humanitarian Parole   It wasn’t the email Yaroslav Perepadya had been hoping for. Cortney Copeland  MPA/MAIEM ’15 had bad news—the potential American sponsor for him and his teenage son hadn’t checked out. It had been six months since Perepadya MACD ’03 and his son had fled their home in Dnipro, a day after Russia invaded at the border, just 150 miles from their home. They headed first to western Ukraine, then to Ireland, where they’d been hunkering down in a hotel room for months as Perepadya looked for a long-term home in the U.S. Copeland, a board member and volunteer with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Alliance for Ukraine (RPCV Alliance), apologized for having gotten his hopes up and said they were still looking to see if they could find a match. As she scanned his bio, a detail jumped . . .

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Sherry Morris (Ukraine) — Short story and Flash Fiction Writer

Based in the Scottish Highlands Sherry Morris is from a small town in Missouri, but hasn’t let that stop her. She spent the summer of her 18th birthday traveling up the coast of France with a circus and after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a teaching degree,  joined the Peace Corps. She served two years in Ukraine (1993-95) and spent a further year in Poland before moving to London in 2000. In February 2017 she moved to a farm in the Scottish Highlands where she lives happily ever after. Her work has appeared online with Horror Scribes and Gemini magazine, in print with Molotov Cocktail and the Bath Flash anthology To Carry Her Home. It has also been performed with Liars’ League London and The Space theatre in east London. A story she wrote about her Peace Corps experience — “Soul Mates” appears in A Small Key Opens Big Doors: Vol 3 — The Heart of Eurasia. She . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers | November-December 2022

  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 . . .

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Review — BABUSYA’S KITCHEN by Ukraine RPCVs

  Babusya’s Kitchen: Recipes for Living & Eating Well in Ukraine by Returned Peace Corps Ukraine Volunteers RPCV Alliance for Ukraine, publisher 216 pages $30.00 (hardcover) Review by: D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76, and Costa Rica 1976-77) • This is a beautiful cookbook! My favorite part is the pictures of dishes ready to serve, but the photos of Ukrainian scenery and people are a close second. The authors/editors are all Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who served in Ukraine (I love their self-assigned titles so much that I will include them here): Cortney Copeland — Director of Official Stuff Patricia Deignan — Voice of Reason and Logic Sarah Friedman — Communications Wiz Sandy Jacobs — Culinary Storyteller Sarah Kate (Monroe) Demchuk — Professional Book Wrangler Casey Ritter — Captain of Team Morale Colleen Smith — President of Punctuation There is a section full of Ukrainian recipes and one full of . . .

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DEAR MICHELLE, LETTERS FROM AN OLD FRIEND IN A NEW LIFE by Samuel Gerard (Ukraine)

  by Samuel Gerard (Ukraine 2018–20) (pen name of Samuel Gerard Luebbers)   Having had the chance to reflect on my Peace Corps experiences, and knowing how fickle memory can be, I felt the necessity to write them down. What became of this project was a meandering epistolary, one which I both mentally dedicated and fictionally addressed to an old friend, Michelle. We met a lifetime ago on the roof of my college freshmen dorm. We shared a long conversation then, and several others afterwards. We always imagined, to ourselves, that we would be together. I promised her that when I was ready to commit to someone, it would be her. Life has a way of getting in the way, though. I learned this alongside college’s so many other lessons. In ultimate testament to life’s effect on well-laid plans, soon after Michelle and I began dating, I received my invitation to . . .

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RPCV–made beer to help Ukraine

  ABQ brewery providing a ReSource for Ukraine by Elaine D. Briseño / Albuquerque Journal staff writer PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6TH, 2022 AT 1:46PM     Sipping on beer might seem like an unremarkable activity but one brewery is hoping that simple pleasure will help people on the other side of the world. The owners of ReSource Brewing Co., Stephanie and Shawn Wright, are releasing “Our Lady of Immaculate Fermentation” and categorizing what is usually called a Russian Imperial Stout as a Ukrainian Imperial Stout. The beer will be released Friday, April 8. Stephanie Wright said the brewery will donate 100% of the proceeds to help the people in Ukraine. “Eastern Europeans are known for their love of strong drink,” Stephanie Wright (Moldova 1999-01) said. “Vodka and imperial beers among the top picks. Shawn and I thought it would be fun to take the Imperial Stout moniker away from Russia . . .

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Review — AWKWARD STUMBLES AND FUZZY MEMORIES by Kathy Ivchenko (Ukraine)

  Awkward Stumbles and Fuzzy Memories: Memoir of a Peace Corps Volunteer by Kathy Ivchenko (Ukraine 1994-96) Independently published 176 pages February 2021 $8.99 (Kindle); $14.95 (Paperback) Reviewed by Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) • Awkward Stumbles and Fuzzy Memories, Memoir of a Peace Corps Volunteer is a lively, entertaining, and insightful account of the author’s experiences living and teaching English in Ukraine in the mid-1990s. Author Kathy Ivchenko takes us out of her comfort zone, a small town in Wisconsin, to Eastern Europe during a time of regional transformation. She returns home two years later with a lifetime of memories and a Ukrainian husband. The author is a wonderful storyteller, and her writing is very personal. We feel her frustrations, “awkward stumbles,” and achievements. There’s substantial detail throughout the book, a testament to her precise recollection of people, places, and experiences. The author informs us at the outset of her . . .

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RPCV Sabra Ayres (Ukraine) covers her host country for LA TIMES

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Steven Boyd Saum (Ukraine 1994-96)     Pompeo heads to a Ukraine that can’t seem to catch a breath By SABRA AYRES Moscow Correspondent Los Angeles Times JAN. 29, 2020 LA Times Moscow Correspondent Sabra Ayres first went to Ukraine with the Peace Corps (1995-97). It seems Ukraine can’t catch a break from getting dragged into U.S. political drama. In the fall, the quid pro quo scandal emerged and gave Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, an unwanted leading role in what is now the impeachment trial of President Trump. Then in early January, Iran shot down a Ukraine International Airlines passenger jet flying out of Tehran that it mistook as a potential American attack on one of its military bases after it had fired missiles at military bases in Iraq to retaliate for the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani. All 176 passengers and crew aboard were . . .

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To Peel Potatoes

by John P. Deever (Ukraine 1993–95) This essay won the 1996 Moritz Thomsen Award for Best Short Work about the Peace Corps Experience. • “LIFE’S TOO SHORT to peel potatoes,” a woman in my local supermarket announced, as she put a box of instant mashed potatoes into her cart. When I overheard her I nearly shrieked. After recently returning from my Peace Corps stint in Ukraine, I tend to get defensive about the potato in all its forms: sliced, scalloped, diced, chopped, grated, or julienned; then boiled, browned, french-fried, slow-fried, hand-mashed, baked or twice-baked — with an indulgent dollop of butter or sour cream, yes thank you. A large portion of my time in Ukraine was spent preparing what was, in the winter, nearly the only vegetable available. Minutes and hours added up to a string of days handling potatoes. I sized up the biggest, healthiest spuds in the market . . .

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