Peace Corps Worldwide – promoting Peace Corps writers since 1989

Percy Shogren Thailand (1962-64) Honored

Oct 15 2024

Korean War Veteran, Peace Corps Volunteer, American Legion Member and Teacher Percy Gerald “Gerry” Shogren honored at Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza Tuesday, October 15, 2024 Flag presented to Gerry’s wife Kim, sons Alex and Andrew, daughter Dae and a host of grandchildren. Photo by Doug Cerretti. By Doug Cerretti Gerry Shogren of Shoreline, WA passed away August 21, 2024 at 91-years of age. On September 27, 2024 TSgt. Gerry Shogren was honored with a memorial service at Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza under the direction of MG Raymond Coffey, LAC USV-JSC (Legislative Affairs Command U. S. Volunteers-Joint Services Command). MG Raymond Coffey, LAC USV-JSC (third from left) directing the ceremony. Photo by Ron Jones Gerry was honored for his service to his country, enlisting during the Korean war, and his service to the community. We recognize that service to our Country and her causes does not end with termination of Military . . .

Author ‘pays it forward’ with new book

Oct 11 2024

Excerpted from the Salisbury Post (North Carolina). Published Thursday, October 10, 2024. By Karen Kistler When she heard the words cancer, Travis Brady (China 1994) said her reaction was utter disbelief. Now, in remission and eight years out, she has written a book entitled “Make Room for Healing: 40 Tips from a Breast Cancer Survivor,” which she said is a way to pay it forward. “The book is not a memoir,” Brady said. “It’s really about the tips and tricks and things that helped me get through treatment because I knew I wanted to pay forward a way to make going through breast cancer treatment easier for people that we love. That’s really my mission.” Raised in Salisbury and serving as vice president of HR for Hedrick Industries, Brady, along with her husband, David Grose and three-year-old daughter Grier, who now live in Chapel Hill, were living in Northern . . .

Yachats-area Writer Adds New Book–Doug Yunker (Jamaice)

Oct 10 2024

Thanks for the ‘Heads Up’ from Karl Drobnic (Ethiopia 1966-68) Yachats-area “cozy mystery” writer adds new book to his body of work October 8, 2024 Quinton SmithDoug Yunker is a regular at the Beach Daisy wine shop in Yachats, whose (fictitious) owner and business plays a central role in his new book, “Happy Endings.” By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews Doug Yunker has been a small town paperboy, conscientious objector, Peace Corps volunteer, social worker and college professor and administrator. Now, the soon-to-be 82-year-old resident of Tenmile is a mystery writer. Yunker recently self-published Happy Endings: A Yachats Cozy Mystery, the inaugural book in a potential series that kills off an elderly resident of Yachats within its first three pages. It’s not Yunker’s first book. Another self-published novel, Pimento Cove, is about his four years in Jamacia during the Peace Corps. A memoir, A Paperboy’s Own Story, is drawn from a boy’s conversations . . .

Medfield, MA Author Publishes True Crime Stories

Oct 09 2024

Source: October 08, 2024 (PRLEAP.COM) Entertainment News Her Side Of The Sun, a new book by Tim Flaherty (Guatemala 1974-76), has been released by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc. Her Side of the Sun chronicles the tales of different women in a women’s prison located in Framingham, Massachusetts, and the crimes that led them there. The events portrayed within are based on real accounts of incarcerated women and their crimes. Author Tim Flaherty portrays these events in a narrative setting as a message on how drugs and alcohol can lead a woman down this treacherous path. Writing an accurate and honest story, Flaherty transports us into the lives of these women and the devastating impact their actions have not only to themselves but to their families. About the Author Tim Flaherty is a former Peace Corps volunteer and served for three years in Guatemala. As he is fluent in Spanish, in . . .

In Memoriam: Roger K. Lewis (1941-2024)

Oct 08 2024

It is with a heavy heart that the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation announces the passing of our President, Roger K. Lewis, who died on Wednesday at his home in Washington, D.C. after undergoing a medical procedure. He was 83, and is survived by his wife Ellen, their son Kevin and his wife, and four granddaughters. Roger’s dedicated leadership and steadfast commitment to Peace Corps Park has been critical in building the coalition that brought us from the initial concept through a competitive design competition and numerous rounds of design reviews to an elegant result that is scheduled for final approval this month. His legacy will live on in our hearts, and in every part of this project that he championed with such vigor and skill. A celebrated author, architect and journalist, Roger’s history with the Peace Corps and volunteer service dates from his time in Tunisia, where from 1964-66 he . . .

Glenn Blumhorst Takes Over! Welcome, Glenn

Oct 07 2024

Glenn Writes: As I take the reins of Peace Corps Worldwide it is with immense appreciation for John and Marian’s tireless efforts to advance the Peace Corps’ Third Goal through Peace Corps Worldwide, Peace Corps Writers, and Peace Corps Imprint. It is my intention to continue the good work that they have done for more than three decades and honor their exemplary legacies of service. We stand on their shoulders as we move forward. For now I will be assuming John’s responsibilities for posting news, updates, and analysis from around the Peace Corps community, while coordinating with Marian, who will continue managing the Peace Corps Writers publishing arm of Peace Corps Worldwide. I’m grateful that Noah Beil will continue to provide indispensable IT support for the website. I look forward to working in partnership with them and welcome your suggestions and assistance for the future of Peace Corps Worldwide. Personally, . . .

Review | AFRICA OPENED MY HEART by Julia Dreyer Wang (Benin)

Oct 05 2024

Africa Opened My Heart: A Memoir Julia Dreyer Wang (Benin 2012-14) Native Book Publishing August 2024 341 pages $19.99 (paperback), $3o.00 (Hardcover), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Karen Chaffraix Waller (Senegal, Agroforestry, 2012- 14) . . . In Africa Opened My Heart Julie Wang takes the reader on a journey into deepest Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. But unlike most of us who engage in this two-year mission, she fell in love with a native and put down roots on the continent. She built a family and a house and a thriving foundation that continues to change lives. She is now in her 70’s, white, monied, and brave. Wang’s story is woven with insights and confessions. She tells us why she went and why she stays, all the while illuminating the malevolency of the world’s black/white divide with its inherent contradictions and evils. She illustrates the discernable difference between . . .

Bob Shacochis (Caribbean) writes about Peace Corps Writers

Oct 04 2024

Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76) pinpoints how Peace Corps writers are in step with great writers from previous generations. “We are torchbearers of a vital tradition — that of shedding light in the mythical heart of darkness. We are descendants of Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, and scores of other men and women, expatriates and travel writers and wanderers, who have enriched our domestic literature with the spices of Cathay, who have tried to communicate the ‘exotic’ as a relative, rather than an absolute, quality of humanity.” What America has gained through the writings of these Volunteers are methods of understanding the parts of the world and the cultures most Americans never see. By writing about the developing world and emerging democracies, Peace Corps Writers have broadened the landscape of American literature, enriching the national cannon with internationally flavored prose and poetry. . . .

Transition of Peace Corps Worldwide Website

Oct 01 2024

Marian Haley Beil and I have been writing about changes and developments in the Peace Corps, as well as, noting the publication of articles, essays and books by RPCVs for over 35 years. We have also reported on what the agency and Volunteers are doing worldwide. These are our efforts, we believe, at the heart of the Third Goal — to “bring the world back home.” Who does what Marian, as the publisher, edits, designs, and distributes the site. In the days of our printed newsletters, she also arranged printing and mailing. Now that we are online she has designed our site (with the great help of her son), and maintains a number of databases including one for 680 Peace Corps experience books, and another for more than 1900 Peace Corps authors. I am primarily focused on finding out what RPCVs are doing since their tours and using our . . .

PHS graduate departs to Colombia with Peace Corps

Oct 01 2024

PCV in the news — By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff 05:37PM / Sunday, September 29, 2024Print Story | Email Story PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A 2018 Pittsfield High School graduate is dedicating her next couple of years to service in the Peace Corps. Earlier this month, 24-year-old Kennedy Merriam departed to Colombia where she will serve as a co-English teacher for two years. She found her voice while studying Spanish in Pittsfield Public Schools and has made a career of it. “I feel like right now, there is no better time than for me to give back and to learn from others, to work with others, and I think my biggest reason to serve would be to be able to grow myself with helping others but also having others help me grow and expand my knowledge, my beliefs,” she said. “It all narrows back to that word of giving back. I . . .

RPCVs Return to Hawaii After 60 Years

Sep 30 2024

Former Peace Corps Volunteers return to Hawaii after 60 years By John Burnett Hawaii Tribune-Herald Today The cohort of about 100 completed training on the island before deploying to Malaysia, some as teachers, others as nurses and all with a mindset to make the world a better place, one community at a time. A dozen or so of those people, now in their 80s, returned to the island with family members to reminisce. The Hawaii Tribune-Herald talked to four of them at the Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo. “The Peace Corps, I would say, was at the height of its popularity, a couple of years after (President John F.) Kennedy got it started,” said John Knopp of Milwaukee, who volunteered as a secondary school biology and chemistry teacher. “We were part of a massive positive response to that idea. I think most of us were freshly graduated from college as . . .

Shay Youngblood (Dominican Republic) Shook the Mess Out of Misery

Sep 29 2024

Obituary — Celebrated author and playwright RPCV Shay Youngblood (Dominica 1981-83) died of ovarian cancer on June 11 in Peachtree City, Ga. She was 64. Born Sharon Ellen Youngblood in Columbus, Ga., in 1959, Youngblood penned novels, poetry, children’s books, and plays, creating powerful Southern Black women characters who were unapologetically self-possessed and free in ways not typically seen in women characters in general, and Black women in particular, in the U.S. Following the death of her mother when she was 2 years old, Youngblood was raised by her maternal grandmother and great-grandmother. Youngblood credited her upbringing by her grandmothers and their tight-knit circle of friends for shaping and molding her worldview on relationships, society, power, and identity; they and a group of their friends influenced the characters she wrote. Shay also mirrored the close-knit community she grew up in by becoming part of a circle of Black women . . .

Peace Corps Volunteers return to El Salvador

Sep 28 2024

The Peace Corps — The first US Peace Corps Volunteers return to El Salvador since leaving in 2016 because of violence SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Peace Corps volunteers returned to El Salvador Friday for the first time since the American force left in 2016 because of violence in the Central American country. It was the latest sign of a thaw in U.S. relations with El Salvador, whose President Nayib Bukele was once shunned because of his harsh crackdown on street gangs. It was also a sign of how much Bukele’s widespread arrests of suspected gang members – which also jailed a considerable number of apparently innocent young men – has reduced the country’s once-fearsome homicide rate. The Peace Corps said the first nine volunteers would work on community economic development, education, and youth initiatives. All nine had previously worked two-year stints in other Central American . . .

Novelist, teacher, and founder of “Dangerous Writing‘ Tom Spanbauer dies at 78 (Kenya)

Sep 27 2024

Obituary — Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71) author of The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon [1991] and I Loved you More, died September 21, in Portland, following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Spanbauer was born in Pocatello, Idaho, in 1946. After waiting tables while earning his MFA from Columbia University in 1988, he served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, then lived across the United States before moving to Portland in 1991, shortly after publication of his cult classic The Man Who Fell in Love With The Moon. His other novels include Faraway Places, In the City of Shy Hunters, I Loved You More, and Now Is the Hour. His books explore issues of race, sexual identity, and making a family of choice. In Portland, he founded the “Dangerous Writing” workshop from his home. The workshop, which spanned three decades, left a line of enthusiastic students. “It is a terrifying thing to . . .

MALINDY’S FREEDOM by Theresa Delsoin (Samoa)

Sep 27 2024

A new book – Malindy’s Freedom: The Story of a Slave Family by Mildred Johnson & Theresa Delsoin (Samoa 2004-06) Missouri Historical Society Press May 2005 220 pages $22.50 (Hardcover) This is an account of the years 1820 to 1865 in the life of Malindy, a freeborn Cherokee who was unlawfully enslaved as a child by a Franklin County, Missouri, farmer. Married to a freedman, Malindy gave birth to five children in slavery–creating a family she would fight her whole life to keep together. As a testament to Malindy’s iron will, her great-granddaughters Mildred Johnson and Theresa Delsoin have lived to share the story passed on through their family for generations–a story of courage, conviction, and love. In Malindy’s Freedom, Johnson and Delsoin construct a narrative that realistically re-creates Malindy’s world–the individuals she encountered, the crucibles she faced, the battles she won. The authors relied principally on census records, . . .