August 3, 2010 – Peace Corps Worldwide

2010 Peace Corps Writers Award for Best Travel Book won by Toby Lester

Aug 03 2010

PEACE CORPS WRITERS is pleased to announce that The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America Its Name by Toby Lester (Yemen 1988–90) has won the 2010 Award for the Outstanding Travel Book published by a Peace Corps writer during 2009. Lester will receive a framed certificate and a prize of $200. Picked as one of the best books of 2009 by the Washington Post, American Heritage, the Seattle News Tribune, and the Kansas City Star, The Fourth Part of the World also was selected as a Wall Street Journal History Bestseller, received a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, and was selected by Indie Booksellers for its November 2009 Indie Next List. In his review for our site David A. Taylor (Mauritania 1983–85) summed up, Lester’s book is a celebration of the rare instances where curiosity . . .

What Really Works In The Peace Corps

Aug 03 2010

I remember back in ’95 e-mailing Susan Snelson, who was finishing up her tour as a PCV in Poland and asking her how she had become involved in the Peace Corps. In the late ’80s, she told me, she had gone to visit her son who was a PCV in Niger and she decided ‘she could do this!’ and came home to Midland, Texas, where she owned a travel business, turned the business over to others, joined the Peace Corps, and went off to Poland to help them develop their tourist business. Because she had been in the travel industry, she was assigned to the Ministry of Tourist. It all made a lot of sense to the CD and the Polish government, but they, the Tourist Bureau, had no idea what to do with Susan. They gave her a desk to sit at, and for awhile she sat at it, but the Ministry had no idea who . . .

Tony D'Souza Talks To Jason Boog

Aug 03 2010

Jason Boog (Guatemala 2000-2002) is the editor of MediaBistro Publishing, which includes GalleyCat and eBookNewser. The lively, eclectic, and widely read GalleyCat specifically focuses on the publishing industry, and offers job listings, insider industry happenings, the scoop on upcoming titles, and occasionally, great literary gossip. What better person to ask to get a sense of what’s going on in NY in the midst of this protracted recession? Talking with . . . . . . Jason Boog An interview by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-2002, Madagascar 2002-2003) author of the novels Whiteman and The Konkans. His new novel The Mule is forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. JASON BOOG (Guatemala 2000-02) joined the Peace Corps after graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in literature. Following his tour, he studied magazine writing at NYU’s graduate journalism school, then stayed on in the city to begin his editing and writing . . .

Archive - August 3, 2010