Archive - September 6, 2012

The winner of the Peace Corps Collection Award is Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) senior editor of four books of essays by RPCVs published by Travelers’ Tales/Solas House. The books are: One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo — Volume One, Africa, Edited by Aaron Barlow (Togo 1988-90) Gather The Fruit One By One — Volume Two, Americas–Edited by Pat Alter (Paraguay 1970-72) and Bernie Alter (India 1967-69) A Small Key Opens Big Doors — Volume Three, The Heart of Eurasia–Edited by Jay Chen (Kazakhstan 2005-08) Even The Smallest Crab Has Teeth — Volume Four, Asia & The Pacific, Edited by Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Jane Albritton undertook a herculean task: to gather enough Peace Corps personal experience essays to fill a multi-volume anthology. After four years of intense work, she completed the task in 2011 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps’ inception. The four volumes include more . . .

Richard Sitler’s (Jamaica 2000–02) Making Peace with the World: Photographs of Peace Corps Volunteers published by Other Places Publishing has won the Peace Corps Writers’ award for best photography book of 2011. Richard is a photojournalist who grew up in Knightstown, Indiana. He worked at newspapers in Ohio, Indiana, New Hampshire and New Jersey. Most recently Sitler was on staff at The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind. Sitler is a graduate of Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois. He also studied at The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. From 2000 to 2002 Sitler took a break from his photojournalism career to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica. Sitler was placed in the rural community of Lluidas Vale where he served as an at-risk youth advisor to the Lluidas Vale All Age School. In 2006 Sitler returned to Jamaica as a Crisis Corps Volunteer (now called Peace . . .