Archive - September 2009

Merrill D. Peterson (Armenia 1997-99)  Professor of History (Emeritus) at the University of Virginia and the editor of the prestigious Library of America edition of the writings of Thomas Jefferson, and who wrote several books on Jefferson, including the acclaimed 1970s biography Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation died on September 23, 2009. He was 88. In his lifetime he wrote 37 books, including one based on his Peace Corps tour, Starving Armenians: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After.” Peterson joined the Peace Corps at the age of 76. In addition to his contributions to the University through teaching and chairing the history department, Peterson also served as the College’s dean of faculty for four years. In an article in the University’s Cavalier Daily, History Prof. Charles McCurdy said Peterson was an “intellectual historian,” but also praised his humility.”[He was] the greatest historian on the Virginia faculty in . . .

Portrait of a Peace Corps Gringo by Paul Arfin, self-published with BookSurge in August, is reviewed here by Honduras RPCV Barbara E. Joe, author of Triumph & Hope: Golden Years with the Peace Corps in Honduras, selected as Best Peace Corps Memoir of 2008 by Peace Corps Writers and Best New Non-Fiction Finalist, National Indie Excellence Awards. Barbara works as a Spanish interpreter, translator, and freelance writer in Washington, DC. • Portrait of a Peace Corps Gringo by Paul Arfin (Colombia 1963–65) BookSurge August 2009 378 pages $17.99 Reviewed by Barbara Joe (Honduras 2000–03) In Portrait of a Peace Corps Gringo by Paul Arfin, I looked forward to becoming reacquainted with Colombia, where I’d spent two teenage years. This book, however, turned out to be more autobiography than Peace Corps memoir. Peace Corps service is often valuable in shaping young people’s future. For Arfin, this pattern held true. While the author . . .

John Woods is president of CWL Publishing Enterprises. He has worked in book publishing since 1970 and recently worked on Making the Good Life Last: 4 Keys to Sustainable Living by Michael A. Schuler (Berrett-Koehler). He was a Volunteer in Ethiopia from 1965 to 1968. His son Christopher Woods was a PCV in Kazakhstan from 1996 to 1998. Here John reviews Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America by David A. Taylor. • Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America by David A. Taylor (Mauritania 1983–85) Wiley February 2009 272 pages $27.95 Reviewed by John Woods (Ethiopia 1965–68) Imagine in this current economic travail if one of President Obama’s initiatives was to fund a project where out-of-work writers were employed to create travel and cultural guides to every state and several major cities in the United States. I’m pretty sure the right . . .

Glimpse is seeking applicants for its Spring 2010 Correspondents Program. Supported in part by National Geographic Society, The Correspondents Program is for especially talented young adults (aged 18–34) specializing in writing or photography. Correspondents receive a $600 stipend, a professional editor, career training in writing and photography, guaranteed publication on Glimpse.org, and potential publication in National Geographic platforms. The application deadline is November 1. For more information, visit: http://glimpse.org/correspondents.

Images of America — Platte County is reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit, whose latest book, Whispering Campaign, includes short stories from Mexico and Central America. Published by iUniverse, it will be available at Amazon.com by November 1st. • Images of America: Platte County by Starley Talbott (South Africa 2001) Arcadia Publishing August 2009 128 pages $21.99 Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975–77) Images in America: Platte County is a history book. It could be described as a photo essay but it is more than that. This is about the people, places and activities from the 1800s until 1965 that defined Platte County, Wyoming. The history of its changing cultural geography begins with homesteaders riding a trail parallel to the North Platte River in the later portion of the 19th century and ends with abandoned Atlas missile silos south of Chugwater in the 1960s. The black and white photographs are . . .

Wordrunner Electronic Chapbooks announced the publication of I AM A FACT, NOT A FICTION, an e-chapbook by Edward Mycue (Ghana 1961). Read and enjoy his wildly imaginative poetry at www.echapbook.com/poems/mycue. Wordrunner had a booth at the 10th annual Sonoma County Book Festival on Saturday, September 19 in Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa ( www.socobookfest.org).  Ed Mycue was  there with copies of Mindwalking 1937-2007 (Philos Press, 2008) to autograph.

Leita Kaldi Davis worked for the United Nations, UNESCO, Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard University. She worked with Roma (Gypsies) for fifteen years, became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal at the age of fifty-five, then went on to work for the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti for five years. She retired in Florida in 2002. Davis has written a memoir of Senegal, Roller Skating in the Desert, and is working on a memoir of Haiti. Here she reviews a collection of New Mexico stories by Martha Egan (Venezuela 1967–69). • La Ranfla and Other New Mexico Stories by Martha Egan (Venezuela 1967–69) Papalote Press September 2009 208 pages $24. 95 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) The themes of Martha Egan’s stories are broken-down vehicles (la ranfla means jalopy), unlikely destinations (Los Lopez, population 58), women who follow their dreams (a veterinarian, a silversmith) . . .

The September 14, 2009 issue of  The New Yorker has a long short story by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) entitled, “The Lower River.”  The story is set in Malawi. A ‘volunteer’ at sixty returns to Africa. In the story, the narrator  wondered “if the people of Malabo might still remember what he had done there.” Theroux’s next novel is entitled, A Dead Hand. In it  Theroux returns to India with “a stylish and gripping novel of crime and obsession in Calcutta.” This is a novel that is being billed as “a dark and twisted narrative of obsession and need.”…. When Jerry Delfont, a travel writer with writer’s block, receives a letter from a captivating and seductive American philanthropist with news of a scandal involving an Indian friend of her son’s, he is sufficiently intrigued to pursue the story. Who is the boy found on the floor of a cheap hotel . . .