Archive - September 4, 2013

THE MARIA THOMAS FICTION AWARD is named after the novelist Maria Thomas [Roberta Worrick (Ethiopia 1971-73)] who was the author of a well-reviewed novel, Antonia Saw the Oryx First, and two collections of short stories, Come to Africa and Save Your Marriage: And Other Stories and African Visas: A Novella and Stories, all set in Africa. Roberta lost her life in August, 1989, while working in Ethiopia for a relief agency. She went down in the plane crash that also killed her husband, Thomas Worrick (Ethiopia 1971-73), and Congressman Mickey Leland of Texas. • THE WINNER FOR the Peace Corps Writers 2013 Best Book of Fiction published in 2012 is The Beach at Galle Road: Stories from Sri Lanka by Joanna Luloff (Sri Lanka 1996-98) published by Algonquin Books. Joanna Luloff grew up in Massachusetts, received her MFA from Emerson College and her PhD from University of Missouri. From 1996 to . . .

Bully Bean (Lima Bear Stories) by Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67) and Peter Weck Illustrated by Len DiSalvo Lima Bear Press 30 pages Hardcover $15.95 2013 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) By this point, I think it’s safe to say that my kids will grow up with Thomas and Peter Weck’s Lima Bears; the series first appeared two years ago, and we’ve been following them ever since. In the short span of childhood, that’s been half my kids’ lives! The Wecks’ have released the fifth title in their series, Bully Bean, and I’ve been finding that there’s an odd congruence between where my kids are developmentally and the subject matters the Wecks’ are tackling. The bean bears of Limalot were facing their unfounded fears in The Cave Monster right around the time my kids discovered that the dark spaces under the bed and in the closet were . . .