September 12, 2013 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Where the Peace Corps Began: University of Michigan, October 14, 1960

Sep 12 2013

I received a few days ago a copy of this documentary film of the founding of the Peace Corps at the University of Michigan. It was produced for the University of Michigan on the 50th anniversary of the agency. It was sent to me by Al Guskin (Thailand 1961-64), then a graduate student in social psychology in 1961 when Kennedy spoke at 2 a.m. on the steps of the University of Michigan Student Union and introduced the idea of a ‘peace corps’ to the students who had waited up all night to hear him. Al, and his wife Judy (Thailand 1961-64), a graduate student in comparative literature, would go the next day to form the “Americans Committed to World Responsibility” which organized students throughout the midwest to become part of this ‘student movement’. I was, with several others, Bill Donohoe (Ethiopia 19621-64), Dick Joyce (Philippians 1962-64), Leo Reno (Liberia 1963-65) . . .

Review of Bob Shacochis's (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76) The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

Sep 12 2013

The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975–76) Atlantic Monthly Press $28.00 713 pages 2013 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) WITH THE WIDELY HERALDED release of his first novel since 1993’s National Book Award Finalist Swimming in the Volcano, Bob Shacochis has managed to make dead one of the livelier discussion points that’s unified Peace Corps writers for the better part of the past two decades: “What’s up with Bob, anyone seen him?” “One assumes he’s still in New Mexico, working on that crazy, alleged book.” The crazy, alleged book long ago became mythological. “I heard it’s about a zombie in Haiti.” “Haiti? I heard it was set in Croatia.” It’s been widely assumed Shacochis had waded into a literary quagmire, drowned himself in a stubborn attempt at an overreaching Ur text, a quixotic journey to write the whole history of some . . .

Matthew A. Hamilton (Armenia 2006-08, Philippines 2008-10) Wins 2013 Poetry Award

Sep 12 2013

The Peace Corps Writers Award for Best Poetry Book was first presented in 1997. The winner for Peace Corps Writers 2013 Best Book of Poetry published in 2012 is The Land of the Four Rivers by Matthew A. Hamilton (Armenia 2006–08, Philippines 2008–10) published by Cervena Barva Press in 2012. Matthew Hamilton was a Legislative Assistant on Capital Hill and, prior to that, a Benedictine Monk. He is a 1999 graduate of Belmont Abbey College with a Bachelors of Arts degree in History and has a MFA from Fairfield University. He is a poetry reader for the online magazine, Mason’s Road and Drunken Boat. He was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize and has published in A-Minor Magazine, Atticus Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Noctua Review. In his review of this collection for our site, Mark B Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991–93) wrote: Most of the poems in . . .

Archive - September 12, 2013