Archive - 2012

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 . . .

The Isla Vista Crucible Reilly Ridgell (Micronesia 1971–73) Savant Books and Publications 268 pages $16. 95 (paperback) 2012 Reviewed by Darcy Munson Meijer (Gabon 1982-84) THE 1960s AND EARLY ’70s were an especially interesting period in U.S. history, a decade of  changes social, political and ideological. In The Isla Vista Crucible, author Reilly Ridgell examines many aspects of the era from the viewpoints of three students sharing a house in Isla Vista, the community next to the UC Santa Barbara campus. He looks at sex, responsibility, friendship and patriotism in a thoughtful, relaxed way which is both informative and enjoyable. Meet the main characters: Reggie, studying for his Master’s degree in political science. He is serious, diligent and horny. He starts the school’s first lacrosse team. Donnie, his undergraduate roommate. A self-styled political radical and C student, he is self-centered and impulsive. He needs to maintain a 2.0 GPA to avoid being . . .

The online arm of the Chico (CA) Enterprise Record published a review of Rob Davidson’s (Crenada 1990–92) new short story collection. Biblio File: New collection of short stories from a Chico writer By Dan Barnett Posted: 3/11/2012 at chicoer.com Rob Davidson teaches American literature and creative writing at Chico State University. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he studied at Beloit College and Purdue University, then traveled to the Eastern Caribbean to serve with the U.S. Peace Corps. His new collection of short stories, “The Farther Shore” ($16 in paperback from Bear Star Press in Cohasset, takes its inspiration from the sayings of the Buddha: “Go beyond / This way or that way, / To the farther shore / Where the world dissolves / And everything becomes clear.” The nine stories in the book, beautifully designed by Bear Star’s Beth Spencer, bring their central characters to a place that threatens dissolution. They . . .