Archive - March 2012

Here is a quick summary of  Toby Lester’s (Yeman 1983–85) new book Da Vinci’s Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image that has already been published, to great reviews, in England, and is now available in the U.S. This is the story of Vitruvian Man: Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of a man in a circle and a square. Deployed today to celebrate subjects as various as the nature of genius, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the human spirit, the figure appears on everything from coffee cups and T-shirts to book covers and corporate logos. In short, it has become the world’s most famous cultural icon, yet almost nobody knows anything about it. Leonardo didn’t summon Vitruvian Man out of thin air. He was playing with the idea, set down by the Roman architect Vitruvius, that the human body could be . . .

Todd Fredson (Ivory Coast 2000–02) has won the 2011 Patricia Bibby First Book Prize for his collection of poems entitled, The Crucifix-Blocks. This annual prize is from Tebot Bach Publishing of Huntington Beach, CA. and is open to any poet who has not published a full length collection. The prize offers $1000, publication of the book, and promotional support. The judge for the 2011 competition was David St. John. Of his new collection of poems, Todd Fredson says, “I wanted to  explore that time in the Ivory Coast, such as it was — revolutionary — and  to explore the haunting of my dad’s Vietnam experience — they seemed companionable events in my life. I ended up really exploring the limits of speakability, and on the consequences of hitting those limits, which certainly provided its own commentary on the subjects.” Today, Todd is getting his PhD in Creative Writing from the . . .

The very tough New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin gives a rave review of P.F. Kluge’s new novel, The Master Blaster, in Monday, March 26, 2012 edition, calling Kluge’s novel, “stingingly funny.” She goes onto write: “Mr. Kluge, who went to Saipan as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1967 and has made repeated visits ever since, makes a fine alter ego out of the Master Blaster. Both the writer and his trouble-making character are seasoned ironists, expert connoisseurs of corruption.” Kluge peoples his novel with a great cast of characters who all arrive on the same plane and make a bet about who will stay longest: George Griffin, a travel writer, “George is the best kind of hack: a smart one…” Stephanie Warner, an academic recruited for a college on Saipan. “(What does it say about this college, she wonders, that its only advance meeting with her was conducted at the food . . .

In 2000, a man in Moab, Utah left his life savings — $30 — in a phone booth and walked away. Twelve years later that man — Daniel Suelo — enjoys an apparently full and sane life without money, credit, barter or government hand-outs, as he fulfills a vision of the good life inspired by his spiritual guides: Jesus, Buddha and wandering Hindu monks. Suelo, whose real name is Daniel Shellabarger, is an RPCV who served in the village of El Hato in the Andes, Ecuador (1988-89) as a health PCV. A friend of Suelo’s, former river guide and now writer Mark Sundeen, has written a book that traces the path and the singular idea that led Suelo to his extreme lifestyle. In The Man Who Quit Money, Sundeen delivers a myth for our times — one that happens to be a true story . The Man Who Quit Money . . .

Award winning novelist Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975-77) has a good idea. He suggested that www.peacecorpsworldwide.org start publishing on this site–perhaps one a month–a short story written by an RPCV. As Joe wrote me, “everyone has one fiction story sitting in our desk with nowhere to publish”….true enough. (In fact, I have more than one.) So if you all are up for it—and to make my life even more complicated than it is–Marian and I will can start publishing short stories–fiction only–on the site, and when we have enough, publish the best as a PeaceCorpsWriters book? Some ground rules: 1) The story can be on any topic–fiction only–and we would like an international angle. 2) Stories can’t be longer than 10,000 words (unless it is really, really good!) 3) Send it to me by email. 4) We will publish it for free; you’ll keep all rights. 5) Send a short narrative bio of yourself, where you were in the . . .

RPCV writer Patrick Chura (Lithuania 1992-94), has won the College English Association of Ohio’s Nancy Dasher Award, given to the outstanding publication in literary scholarship and criticism by an Ohio resident from 2009 to 2011.  The award is for Thoreau the Land Surveyor, Chura’s book about how Henry David Thoreau’s career as a land surveyor shaped his environmental outlook and literary works.  Here is Mike Tidwell’s review from Peace Corps Writers: https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/review-4/ Congratulations Patrick!  

On Sunday afternoon, March 18, 2012, a memorial service was held in Washington, D.C., for Shlomo Bachrach (Ethiopia PC/Staff 1965-67) who died of lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on December 8, 2011. Shlomo was a famous figure in Ethiopian/American life who recently published the East Africa Forum online that concentrated on news out of the Horn of Africa. He also had two blog on this site. In addition to this, he was actively involved in dozens of other activities that promoted understanding between the US and Ethiopia, including working to start the North American-Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce. He was the author of an Ethiopian folktale book published by Oxford University Press, and for many years ran training workshops for PCV TESL teachers in Ethiopia. In recent years his major focus was his work with a local NGO and the Ethiopian government to develop and implement coffee trademark concept on the country’s major export. At the service . . .

Through the Eyes of My Children: The Adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer Family by Frances L. Stone (Philippines 1971-73) Peace Corps Writers 172 pages $12.99 (paperback) January 2012 Reviewed by Barbara E. Joe (Honduras 2000–03) THE STONES WERE AMONG THE FIRST to sign up when the Peace Corps began sending whole families overseas, and the six of them went to the Philippines in 1971. Frances Stone’s book, Through the Eyes of My Children: The Adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer Family, told mainly in the voices of her four children and aimed at young readers, helps document the history of this little-known, short-lived experiment. I knew two families, each with two children, who served in Costa Rica at that same time. Both they and the Stones have touted the lasting benefits of the program for themselves and their kids, and the positive impact on the communities where they served. . . .

Brazil: Heads and Tales 1965–1967, Peace Corps by Tomas Belsky (Brazil 1965–67) Peace Corps Writers 2012 116 pages $20.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975–77) THERE ARE THOSE AMONGST US who long to outlaw art as a waste of energy. These are usually the same folks who talk about money and practicality. Strange, but when we review human history — the Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, Mayas, Incans — nobody cared enough about merchants to even jot down their names. We remember statesmen, military leaders, builders and most of all, artists. In many cases, the artists were also royalty who supervised statesmen, military leaders and builders. Tomas Belsky understands the power of art. He created a book filled with poetry, colored plates of paintings and personal experience essays about Brazil’s Northeast between 1965 and 1967. In a humorous, free verse poem titled “Finding Tomas,” Belsky explains how he lost . . .