Archive - October 2011

Happy Birthday, Nigeria by Bob Criso (Nigeria 1966–67; Somalia 1967–68) THE FLOATS ROLL DOWN SECOND AVENUE from 54th to 44th Street on a dazzling fall Saturday afternoon in New York City. Women draped in a kaleidoscope of African prints and men in ceremonial robes fit for kings are dancing and waving the green and white stripes of the Nigerian flag, their smiles as wide as the Atlantic. The infectious rhythms of West African hip-hop blast from gigantic speakers on the back of the trucks igniting the crowd on the sidewalks to dance along. A flock of supporters surround each float like buzzing bees, dancing, spinning, unable to contain their enthusiasm. Miss Nigeria, resplendent in a regal white gown and sparkling tiara, passes in a chauffeured shiny red convertible, surrounded by a court of attendants in flowing white dresses, like bridesmaids in a royal wedding. On the sidewalks the crowds are . . .

ALRICK BROWN HAS WRITTEN, produced, and directed narrative films and documentaries that deal with such topics as race, genocide, justice, and social issues “affecting the world at large.” An RPCV who served in Cote d’Ivoire from 2000 to 2002, Brown was an Education Volunteer in a western region of the country that went on to suffer much violence during the Ivorian Civil War. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, Brown earned BA and MA degrees from Rutgers before joining the Peace Corps. He later attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned an MFA in film. Brown’s work has been screened in over forty national and international film festivals, winning numerous awards. Along with his co-producer, he received the HBO Life Through Your Lens Emerging Filmmaker Award for their critically acclaimed documentary Death of Two Sons. In 2004, he was one of four NYU . . .

There is a front page story today (Monday, October 17, 2011) in The New York Times on the future of publishing. If you write you must read: “Amazon Signing Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal” The article goes onto say: “the landscape (publishing) is changing for the first time since Gutenberg invented the modern book nearly 600 years ago.” What has made the publishing world change ‘dramatically’ is the new Kindle Fire. Amazon can develop, promote and deliver their product, i.e. your book! Who needs a publisher acting as gate-keeper? In the article there are several great stories of what has happened to writers who walk away from traditional publishing and venture into the self-publishing and eBook world of the publishing future. Take a look.

To The Far Side of Planet Earth: A Peace Corps Memoir by Jim McConkey (India 1967-69) Infinity Publishing $17.95 (paperback) 342 pages August 2011 Reviewed by Reilly Ridgell (Micronesia 1971–73) AS MOST WRITERS KNOW there is nothing more important than the firsts: the first chapter, the first page, the first paragraph, the first sentence, and sometimes even the first word. These are so important because they either catch the reader’s attention, hooking him or her so they’ll want to read on, or else turn the reader off, and they don’t buy and read the book. Jim McConkey learned that lesson well, and his first chapter is a clinic on how to capture a reader’s interest while setting up the rest of the book as well. What McConkey has created here is sort of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance meets Paul Theroux. Like a good travel writer, McConkey takes . . .

The Time of the Monkey, Rooster, and Dog Charles A. Hobbie (Korea 1969–71) iUniverse 356 pages Hardcover $34.95, paperback $24.95, e-book $9.99 August 2011 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–02, Madagascar 2002–03) CHARLES HOBBIE’S RECENTLY RELEASED memoir of his Peace Corps service in Korea, The Time of the Monkey, Rooster, and Dog, is an engaging and gentle book. I’ve been accused of offering undue praise in these reviews, and while that’s been occasionally true, I’ll gladly put all my critical capital on the line when I say that this book deserves attention, and Hobbie, accolades for the quality of his writing. As with any reviewer in this day of too many books, the review stack waiting for me is always a small Tower of Babel, most of the voices within, tinny. Hobbie’s book is the reward for the chore, the diamond in the coal mine. I suppose my question . . .

By Jason Boog on October 11, 2011 3:47 PM published in GalleyCat Before publishing his new novel Mule, novelist Tony D’Souza made the toughest decision a writer ever has to make. He stopped working on a novel after years of work and started from scratch with a new book. In a short essay, D’Souza explained why he made this difficult decision, offering some important advice for all aspiring writers. Last week the production team behind Blue Valentine optioned the movie rights to Mule. D’Souza wrote: “The day we closed the deal on my first novel Whiteman (2006), my agent Liz Darhansoff gave me this advice, ‘Go to your room and start your next book.’ I took her up on it. I know that for many authors, the second novel is the hardest, but after a few months of failed starts, I quickly broke into the opening pages of The Konkans . . .

Peasants Come Last: A Memoir of the Peace Corps at Fifty by J. Larry Brown (India late 1960s) Lucita Publisher $12.99 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) 174 pages September 2011 • Mule: A Novel of Moving Weight by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–02; Madagascar 2002–03) Mariner Books $14.95 (paperback), $9.66 (Kindle) 304 pages September 2011 • The Time of the Monkey, Rooster, and Dog: A Peace Corps Volunteer’s Years in Korea by Charles A. Hobbie (Korea 1968–71) iUniverse $24.95 (paperback), $9.99 (e-book) 355 pages August 2011 • Red White and Black and Blue (Novel) by Richard Stevenson (pseudonym of Dick Lipez Ethiopia 1962-64) mlrpress $14.99 (paperback), $6.99 (Kindle) 224 pages September 2011

The Peace Corpse: Misadventures in Love and Africa by Andy Christofferson (Tanzania 2002–04) CreateSpace 362 pages $14.99 (paperback); $2.99 (Kindle) May 2011 • To the Far Side of Planet Earth: A Peace Corps Memoir by Jim McConkey (India 1967–69) Infinity Publishing 350 pages $17.95 (paperback) May 2011 • Burmese Refugees: Letters from the Thai-Burma Border Edited by TF Rhoden (Thailand 2005–07) and TLS Rhoden Digital Lycanthrope 112 pages $13.95 (paperback), $9.95 (Kindle) August 2011 • The Memoir of Jack Weedsong by Timothy Schell (Central Africa Empire 1978–79) Serving House Books 160 pages $15.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) August 2011 A Life In Time: A Woman’s Journey from Orphanage to Peace Corps by Kate Stone (India 1966–68) 204 pages August 2011

Tony D’Souza’s new novel is  Mule: A Novel of Moving Weight and he’ll be reading and taling about it  Tuesday, October 11 at Left Bank Books in St. Louis. His novel follows an underemployed writer whose pregnant girlfriend is laid off during the Great Recession. Unsure how to support a family, James and Kate move to a cheap cabin in northern California and become reacquainted with Kate’s high school friend, whose family grows premium weed. In the first two dozen pages of “Mule,” James learns how drug trafficking works. As a white guy, he doesn’t fit the official profiles. He details the tricks – and the dangers: “I read stories about people who’d been busted. I learned never to drive at night, to check that all my lights were working every time I stopped for gas, to stay with the flow of traffic. If a cop started to tail me, I would . . .

Tim Schell (CAR 1978–79) taught English in the town of M’Baiki and would write about it in his novel, The Drums of Africa (2007). He won the Mammoth Book Award for that book. He is also the co-author of Mooring Against the Tide:  Writing Fiction and Poetry (Prentice Hall, 2007) and the co-editor of the anthology A Writer’s Country (Prentice Hall, 2001). His fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Award and he was the winner of the Martindale Award for Long Fiction. Today he teaches literature and writing at Columbia Gorge Community College in Hood River, Oregon. His new book, The Memoir of Jake Weedsong, was a  2010 Finalist for the AWP Award for the Novel. It has just come out from Serving House Books. The Memoir of Jake Weedsong is about Jake and Estuko Weedsong who are living a bucolic life on their vineyard in rural Oregon. Having been forced . . .