October 2009 – Page 3 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Peace Corps Ethiopia & Norman Rockwell

Oct 09 2009

There has been a great deal of buzz lately about Steven Spielberg and Norman Rockwell. Spielberrg owns something like 20 of Norman Rockwell paintings and in July 2010 there will be a special exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. Spielberg’s paintings by Rockwelll will join some 30 other Rockwells from the collection of filmmaker, George Lucas. Like almost everything else in life, there is always a Peace Corps connection. Spielberg owns, “Peace Corps in Ethiopia” a painting that now hangs in the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York. It is on loan from Spielberg as part of “Norman Rockwell: American Imagist,” a traveling exhibition curated and organized by Judy Goffman Cutler. The Ethiopia Peace Corps and Norman Rockwell connection began in 1963 when Rockwell traveled to Ethiopia, and, I believe, to visit the PCVs in India, at the invitation of the agency. While in Ethiopia he . . .

RPCV Author In The Trenches Of Self-Publishing

Oct 09 2009

Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) has published his share of PODs (print-on-demand) books over the years (and has a garage full of books to prove it!), and he was kind enough to send in this short piece about his path-to-publication. This is good advice for anyone looking to publish their Peace Corps (or other) stories. By the way, Larry has a new book coming out from iUniverse so all family and friends of Lihosit should be on the alert. However, if you don’t get the book in the mail, don’t worry. We’ll be reviewing it on this website. Here’s what Larry writes about self-publishing. Ninety percent of all Peace Corps memoirs are self-published. Most companies report authors’ average sales at one hundred copies or less, usually to friends and family. Heck, my friends and family have been begging me to quit writing for nearly thirty years. I can’t stop. Maybe you can’t . . .

RPCV Florence Reed — Living The Third Goal, Saving The World

Oct 08 2009

Recently the National Peace Corps Association hustled some money from the Gates Foundation and started up Africa Rural Connect. ARC began its operation by asking the question: “Where should development agencies spend their money? That’s what you, as a returned Peace Corps volunteer, can help us figure out.” Well, ARC — why don’t you ask Florence Reed? Take a look and see how this woman has already achieved in Central America what you want to do. This is just one RPCV who with little organizational help (or funding from Gates!) has managed to establish Sustainable Harvest International (SHI). In her bio on the SHI website it says that Florence Reed (Panama 1991–93) believes that when people work together, things change for the better. In 1997, she founded Sustainable Harvest International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with rural Central American communities to implement sustainable land-use practices. As president of the organization, Florence spends her time guiding SHI forward . . .

RPCV Offers Free Tour Of Morocco To Promote His Novel

Oct 07 2009

RPCV Thomas Hollowell, who served briefly in Morocco, is one of 20 authors being featured at a small book store in Peoria called I Know You Like A Book this coming Saturday, October 10. According to the owner of the story, quoted in The Peoria Star, “With the Internet changing the way books are published and marketed, more people are taking advantage of opportunities to publish their own works.” She goes onto say, “It’s also getting harder for writers to get noticed.” Well, it has always been harder for writers to get noticed even if their books are published by commercial or academic presses, or from a small regional press. Tom Hollowell’s book Allah’s Garden was published by a small press in Illinois this summer and he put it this way in the newspaper article, “While self-publishing can be an opportunity, it also has its drawbacks. Traditional publishing routes are flawed . . .

Looking For An Agent? The “D” List

Oct 07 2009

Dail, Laura LAURA DAIL LITERARY AGENCY, INC. 80 Fifth Ave., Suite 1503 New York, NY 10011 History/Politics/Current Affairs, Advice/Relationships, Business/Investing/Finance, Memoirs, Children’s www.ldlainc.com DeFiore, Brian DEFIORE AND COMPANY 72 Spring Street, Suite 304 New York, NY 10012 Illustrated/Art, Children’s www.defioreandco.com Del Veccio, Anna MARIA CARVAINIS AGENCY, INC. 1350 Ave. of the Americas, Ste. 2905 New York, NY 10019 General Fiction, Reference ca@mariacarvainisagency.com www.mariacarvainisagency.com Dijkstra, Sandra SANDRA DIJKSTRA LITERARY AGENCY 1155 Camino del Mar, PMB 515 Del Mar CA 92014 General Fiction, Business/Investing/Finance, History/Politics/Current Affairs, sdla@dijkstraagency.com www.thecmagency.com Diver, Lucienne THE KNIGHT AGENCY P.O. Box 550648 Atlanta, GA 30355 Mystery/Crime, Women’s/Romance, Fantasy, Children’s Lucienne.Diver@knightagency.net http://www.knightagency.net Dolger, Jonathan JONATHAN DOLGER AGENCY 49 East 96th St. 9B New York, NY 10128 General Fiction, Reference Dolgerlit@aol.com Donnaud, Janis JANIS A. DONNAUD AND ASSOCIATES, INC. 525 Broadway, 2nd Fl. New York, NY 10012 How-To, Business/Investing/Finance, Advice/Relationships, Lifestyle, Health Jdonnaud@aol.com Douglas, Sarah 393 W. 49th St., #5G . . .

Review: RPCV Kirsten Johnson’s novel Footsteps

Oct 06 2009

Patricia Taylor Edmisten, who served in the Peace Corps in Peru from 1962 to 1964, is an author herself. She has published Nicaragua Divided: La Prensa, Chamorro Legacy, and Wild Women with Tender Hearts, which was the winner of the 2007 Peace Corps Writers’ Award for poetry. Patricia reviews Kirsten Johnson’s novel Footsteps about life in Kenya. • Footsteps by Kirsten Johnson (Kenya 1982–84) Plain View Press July 2009 248 pages $18.95 Reviewed by Patricia Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962–64) It’s easy to forget that Footsteps is a novel. Buoyed by an enormous heart, Kirsten Johnson shares with her readers the injustice and inequities she witnessed while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya in 1982. In particular, she sheds light on the unique burdens borne by girls and women: lack of education; pregnancies before reproductive organs mature; the absence of skilled midwives; unsanitary birthing conditions; too little breast milk . . .

Looking For An Agent? The “C” List

Oct 05 2009

Camardi, Ben HAROLD MATSON COMPANY INC. 276 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10001 Sci-Fi, General Fiction, History, Religion/Spirituality, Business/Investing hmatsco@aol.com Cameron, Kimberley LITERARY AGENCY 98 Main Street #704 Tiburon, CA 94920 Thriller, Horror, Mystery/Crime, History/Politics/Current Affairs,Business/Investing/Finance www.kimberleycameron.com Cardenas, Christi LAZEAR AGENCY, INC. 431 2nd St., Suite 300 Hudson WI 54016 General Fiction, Reference info@lazear.com www.lazear.com Cardona, Moses 71 West 23rd St., Suite 1600 New York NY 10010 Mystery/Crime jha@jhalit.com www.jhaliterary.com Carlisle, Michael INKWELL MANAGEMENT 521 Fifth Ave., 26th floor New York, NY 10175 History/Politics/Current Affairs, Science Inkwellmanagement.com Carlson, Jennifer 27 West 20th St., suite 1107 New York, NY 10011 Children’s books, history/politics/current affairs dclagency.com Carvainis, Maria 1350 Ave. of the Americas, Ste. 2905 New York, NY 10019 Reference, General Fiction, Romance,Business/Investing, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery, Thrillers mca@mariacarvainisagency.com www.mariacarvainisagency.com Castiglia, Julie 1155 Camino del Mar, Ste. 510 Del Mar, CA 92014 Memoirs JacLAgency@aol.com Chelius, Jane 548 Second St. Brooklyn, NY 11215 Mystery/Crime, Narrative . . .

RPCVs — Keep Writing Poetry!

Oct 02 2009

In the October 22, 2009 issue of The New York Review of Book there is an interesting foreword written by Charles Simic, our recent Poet Laureate, to his review of Nicholson Baker’s new novel, The Anthologist. Simic makes a few comments about poetry in America that all of us should take note of. [Yes, I know I ended the sentence with a preposition.] While a recent National Endowment for the Arts study says that reading poetry continues to decline, especially among women, Simic sees poetry, and reading poetry, alive and well in America. He mentioned that today there are at least 27,000 blogs on the Web devoted to poetry (I’m not sure we were counted among the many) and “countless on-line poetry magazines.” Simic also mentioned that he was one of twenty poets who were part of last summer’s Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. This festival drew 19,000 to a . . .

Looking For An Agent? The “B” List

Oct 02 2009

Balkin, Richard THE BALKIN AGENCY, PO Box 222 Amherst, MA 01004 Reference, Anthology, Politics (413)548-9835 rick62838@crocker.com Balzer, Paula 126 Fifth Ave., Suite 300 New York, NY 10011 Parenting, General Fiction (212) 989-5757 slazin@lazinbooks.com http://www.lazinbooks.com Bankoff, Lisa INTERNATIONAL CREATIVE MANAGEMENT 40 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019 History/Politics/Current Affairs, Sports, General Fiction, Memoir lbankoff@icmtalent.com Barber, Virginia WILLIAM MORRIS 1325 Ave of the Americas, 11th Fl. New York, NY 10019 General Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Memoir, Sports, History, Politics/Current Affairs, Children’s http://www.wma.com Barbor, Dave CURTIS BROWN LTD. 10 Astor Place New York, NY 10003 General Fiction, Reference, Parenting, Children’s, History, Politics/Current Affairs, Sci-Fi/Fantasy DB@CBltd.com http://www.curtisbrown.com Barer, Julie BARER LITERACY 270 Lafayette St, Suite1504 New York, NY 10012 General Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Mystery, True Crime, Memoir www.barerliteracy.com Barrett, Loretta BOOKS, INC. 101 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10003 Religion/Spirituality, Pop Culture, History, Politics, Current Affairs (212)242-3420 mail@lorettabarrettbooks.com Barron, Manie WILLIAM MORRIS 1325 Ave. . . .

October RPCV New Books

Oct 01 2009

Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika By Dennis Herlocker (Tanzania 1964-66) iUniverse, $18.95 206 pages September 2009 Maracaibo By Jim Ciullo (Venezuela 1969-71) Mainly Murder Press, $!5.95 304 pages October 2009 In an Uncharted Country By Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-78) Press 53, $14.00 186 pages September 2009 Tanga By Eric Madeen (Gabon iUniverse 288 pages April 2009 What The Abenaki Say About Dogs …and other poems and stories of Lake Champlain By Dan Close (Ethiopia 1966-68) The Tamarac Press, $10 53 pages 2009 Footsteps (Novel) Kirsten Johnson (Kenya 1982-84) Plain View Press, $18.95 243 pages 2009 Clintonomics: How Bill Clinton Reengineered the Reagan Revolution By Jack Godwin (Gabon 1982-84) AMACOM Press, $27.95 304 pages March 2009 Images of America; Platte County By Starley Talbott (South Africa 2001) Arcadia Publishing, $21.99 128 pages 2009 The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s by John Thorndike . . .

Archive - October 2009