Archive - 2009

I’m going to try and settle an argument–and create one!–by looking at the shelf of books we have from Peace Corps writers and come up with a list of the ‘best Peace Corps novels.’ I hope with my nomination to engage the community and have you all respond with your “best books.”  Later we’ll look at the non-fiction accounts by RPCVs and pick a list of those books. First, why list of  ‘great books’? Well, I guess it all started with John W. De Forest who introduced the notion of “the great American novel” in 1868 in Nation magazine. Novelist De Forest made the point that no American had produced a true painting of the American soul. What De Forest wanted was a book that “produced a true painting of the American soul, a picture of the ordinary emotions and manner of American existence.” So, what Peace Corps novel has “produced a true painting of . . .

We have a new novelist on our Peace Corps bookshelf, Emily Arsenault of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Emily and her husband were PCVs in rural South Africa where she wrote the first draft of The Broken Teaglass. Emily writes: “After school, I spent many afternoons and evenings sitting outside reading, watching goats, and handing out biscuits and apple slices to the little kids who liked to come by and giggle at our poor Setswana skills. And scribbling out the first draft.” Her mystery novel, published this September by Delacorte Press involves a mysterious quotation in a dictionary (Emily once worked for Merriam-Webster). In their review PW wrote, “”Arsenault’s quirky, arresting debut … [is] an absorbing, offbeat mystery-meets-coming-of-age novel that’s as sweet as it is suspenseful.” I’m a great believer in ‘novels of information’ and on Emily’s website she writes about the factual information she was able to use in creating her novel, . . .

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 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 . . .

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 . . .

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 . . .