2013 – Page 14 – Peace Corps Worldwide

RPCVs Third Goal Projects: Letting Others Know

Jul 15 2013

Third Goal Projects Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64) and John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) in the late 1970s published a newsletter RPCV Writers & Readers that developed by early 2000s into the website:www.peacecorpsworldwide.org. Today, this is an online community and resource for RPCVs, Peace Corps Volunteers, their friends and families, and all who share a desire for international understanding. Peace Corps Worldwide is not officially connected with the Peace Corps or the National Peace Corps Association. As the publisher and editor of this site, we are continually impressed by the Third Goal activities of RPCVs back in their host countries, the projects that RPCVs have developed in-country over the last fifty-plus years, from school and community libraries to health initiatives, to peace keeping efforts, to scholarships for students, and many other such efforts on behalf of their former hosts and the lifelong friends that they have made. We would like to . . .

The storySouth Million Writers Award is Now Open

Jul 12 2013

Jason Sanford is the author of a number of short stories, essays, and articles, and an active member of the SFWA. While he was born and raised in the American South, he currently live in the Midwestern U.S. with his wife and sons. His life’s adventures have included working as an archeologist and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand in the 1990s. He has published a dozen of his short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone, which devoted a special issue to his fiction in December 2010. His fiction has also been published in Year’s Best SF 14 , Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog: Science Fiction and Fact, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Tales of the Unanticipated, The Mississippi Review, Diagram, Pindeldyboz, and other places. Among the awards and honors he has received include being a finalist for the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novella, winning both the 2008 . . .

Review of Greg Alder’s (Lesotho 2003-06) THE MOUNTAIN SCHOOL

Jul 11 2013

The Mountain School by Greg Alder (Lesotho 2003-06) CreateSpace, $13.00 250 pages 2013 $13.00 (paperback), $5.00 (Kindle) Reviewed by Deidre Swesnik (Mali 1996-98) • If you’ve been to Peace Corps, especially if you have been to Peace Corps in Africa, you know the feeling – the feeling of being dropped off at your site by a white Peace Corps truck. Peace Corps drops you off with your stuff and they drive away. And there you are. Alone. And even if you weren’t in Africa, you will have that feeling at some point on your first day at your new site. Even if you are surrounded by people almost all the time – like I was for most of my service in Mali – you can’t avoid those moments of feeling totally apart. It’s a universal feeling. Greg Alder has mastered portraying those (what I believe to be) universals of the . . .

Shriver Stories: Sarge's First Words

Jul 10 2013

This is from Ronald A. Schwarz (Colombia 1961-63). After the Peace Corps he became an anthropologist and spent 12 years in research and training undergraduates in Colombia and Africa. He taught at Williams College and the Johns Hopkins University and later established a development consulting firm in Africa where he lived for 20 years. He has been writing a book about Colombia One PCVs since their Termination Conference. If you have ever met a Colombia One RPCV, the first thing they will say is their name, and then they’ll say: “We were the first PCVs. I think that they must have been inoculated with this phrase by their Peace Corps Doctors.) This is Ron’s great piece about Shriver’s first visit to a Training Site in the summer of ’61. Sarge’s First Words “Looking more like the freshman football team than America’s latest weapon in the cold war, the first contingent . . .

Review of Anthony Simeone's (Burkina Faso 1971-73) Connecting Two Worlds: An Environmental Journey from Peace Corps to Present

Jul 10 2013

Connecting Two Worlds: An Environmental Journey from Peace Corps to Present By Anthony Simeone (Burkina Faso 1971-73) A Peace Corps Writers Book, $19.95 124 Pages 2013 Reviewed by Mike Tidwell (Democratic Republic of the Congo 1985-87) The cover of Anthony Simeone’s memorable but bumpy new book says it all. It shows photographs taken from outer space of Earth and Mars, side by side. One orb has a fertile blue-green hue, radiating the aura life. The other is dark-orange, shadowy, and lifeless. Simeone spends much of the next 124 pages of this short work explaining how environmental degradation inflicted by humans could push the lush green orb to one day more closely resemble the barren-orange orb. Simeone writes in the prologue that his book, Connecting Two Worlds, is also about the “contrast between my life and experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa and my life in the more . . .

Shriver Stories: What Sarge Did For Me

Jul 09 2013

[About 10 years ago I put up a series of stories about Sarge Shriver and I thought I might ‘reintroduce’ them as so many PCVs have come-and-gone through the agency since then and they might not know about the man. I remember in the mid-90s when running the New York Recruitment Office an RPCV recruiter came up to me and asked, “Now was Shriver the first Peace Corps Director?” I didn’t know whether I should hit him over the head or fire him! If there is one legend that we want to maintain, it’s Sarge’s…..so send me your experiences with the Man and I’ll post them on our site. We begin with a story sent to me by Thaine H. Allison, Jr., a PCV in Borneo (1962-64) assigned as an agricultural extension agent in the village of Bandau, a place that is now called Kota Marudu, in Sabah Malaysia. Since . . .

News on Martha Egan's (Venezuela 1967-69) An Apricot Year

Jul 09 2013

An Apricot Year, New Mexico author Martha Egan’s newest novel, is scooping up a bumper crop of prizes this season. Last November the book won two NM/AZ Book Awards, one for Fiction and one for Design. In the last few weeks it has been the recipient of still more kudos. An Apricot Year also won Honorable Mention in the Novels category in the New Mexico Press Women’s 2013 Communications Awards. The Independent Publisher gave it a Bronze IPPY medal for Mountain West Regional Fiction during Book Expo in New York. This is the third of Ms. Egan’s fiction titles to win this prize. On June 28th, An Apricot Year won a Bronze ForeWord Book of the Year Award for Multicultural Fiction announced at the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago. Set in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, An Apricot Year follows a woman who leaves an . . .

News in the Spring 2013 Issue of the Authors Guild Bulletin

Jul 08 2013

E-book sales increased by 45 percent in 2012 to make up 20 percent of the trade book market, according to a report released in May be Bookstats….Adult fiction, particularly romance novels, showed the strongest growth in e-book sales….Overall, trade book sales increased 7 percent in 2012. “The growth in trade book sales occurred despite the loss of numerous brick-and-mortar stores in 2012.”… Online retail appears poised to surpass brick-and-mortar stores soon. In other news. At a symposium held on December 12 at the Library of Congress, where the U.S. Copyright Office and the Center for the Book cosponsored a discussion on the part and future role of the professional author, Louisa Thomas, author of Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family-A Test of Will and Faith in World War, make this comment: “I had thought that when I published a book in 2011, the hardest part would be selling the . . .

April & May & June Books by Peace Corps Writers

Jul 07 2013

Connecting Two Worlds: An Environmental Journey From Peace Corps To Present by Anthony Simeone (Burkina Faso 1971–73) A Peace Corps Writers Book, $19.95 132 pages March 2013 • Africa on My Mind: Educating Americans for Fifty Years, Living Peace Corps’ Third Goal by Angene Wilson (Liberia 1962-64) A Peace Corps Writers Book $10.00 (paperback) 210 pages February 2013 • Gimme Five (Poems) by Philip Dacey (Nigeria 1963–65) Blue Light Press $15.95 55 pages 2013 Strange Stones—Dispatches from East and West By Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) Harper Perennial trade paperback; $14.99 354 pages May 2013 • The Vast Unknown: America’s First Ascent of Everest by Broughton Coburn (Nepal 1973–75) Crown Publishing, $26.00 300 pages April, 2013 • Glimpses through the Forest: Memories of Gabon by Jason Gray (Gabon 2002–04) A Peace Corps Writers Book $14.95 (paperback) 288 pages May 2013 • The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and . . .

Review of Angene Wilson's Africa on my Mind: Living Peace Corps' Third Goal

Jul 02 2013

Africa on My Mind: Living Peace Corps’ Third Goal by Angene Wilson (Liberia 1962–64) A Peace Corps Writers Book $10.00 210 pages February 2013 Reviewed by Julie R. Dargis (Morocco 1984–87) “Once upon a time, I planned to write a novel set in Liberia,” writes Angene Wilson in her recent book, Africa on my Mind. “I was not alone. A number of Peace Corps Volunteers have wanted to be novelists or at least writers of memoirs. My novel would feature Liberians, of course . . . I described Mother Mae . . .. She adjusted the knot of the lappa cloth she’d wrapped around her faded housedress. The lappa was bright blue and red . . .. Behind gold-rimmed glasses, her liquid brown eyes laughed and her voice was gently mocking, but her rather thin lips remained pressed together in a straight line . . ..” Wilson reached out to . . .

And you Think you get Nasty Rejection Letters

Jul 01 2013

My son found this on tumbir–and you think it is tough to get published! Behold what is either the best or worst rejection letter we have ever seen (depending on your capacity for cruelty), sent to Gertrude Stein in 1912 by publisher Arthur C. Fifield. Given that the manuscript in question became Three Lives (among other things) we suppose she had the last laugh. And as an editor, you can’t help thinking: Just how much time did this guy have on his hands?

RPCV Writers Speak to a Full House at NPCA Conference in Boston

Jun 30 2013

I’m told that the panel for writers & film makers at the NPCA Conference this weekend in Boston was well attended and much appreciated. As one person wrote me: “It was a great hour, the room was full. People were engaged. We had a good discussion among everyone there. Wonderful as always to be among Peace Corps people.” Thanks to the panel for making it happen, and thanks to the new head of the NPCA, Glenn Blumhorst, for asking PeaceCorpsWriters to be part of the program. Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963–65) has worked in films and television as a writer, producer and director for 40 years. He recently completed Waging Peace: The Peace Corps Experience, a documentary that weaves the letters, journals, emails and blogs written by Volunteers with the profiles of four former Volunteers who, in their work today, are still making a difference. • Will Siegel (Ethiopia 1962–64) taught secondary . . .

Peace Corps Writers Publishes Jason Gray’s Glimpses through the Forest

Jun 27 2013

Peace Corps Writers — the publishing arm of Peace Corps Worldwide — is happy to announce the publication of Glimpses through the Forest: Memories of Gabon by Jason Gray (Gabon 2002–04). Situated in Central Africa, the nation of Gabon is a vibrant and mysterious place full of rich history, diverse culture, and stunning biodiversity. In the midst of the African rainforest, a Peace Corps Volunteer from Montana is thrust into a new life of adventure and discovery. From close encounters with forest elephants to classroom teaching challenges, this retelling of one man’s experiences takes readers on an extraordinary journey through daily life, cultural events, and ongoing conservation efforts, and shares his love affair with a country that will forever own a piece of his heart. This new book by Jason Gray (Gabon 2002–04) leaves readers with an impression of having shared in his experiences. Gray’s underlying reverence for Gabon and . . .

Those Were The Days! RPCVs Shut Down The Peace Corps

Jun 26 2013

Jack Prebis (Ethiopia 1962-64) who was later an APCD in Ethiopia (1965-67) sent me this photo from his days working in ACTION. This ‘sit in’ happened in 1975, I believe. RPCVs were protesting Nixon/Ford Administration cutting the Peace Corps budget. Some Volunteers occupied Peace Corps offices when the agency was located in its original site, the Maiatico Building at 806 Connecticut Ave. They hung banners out the windows. The office then closed and the staff went home. No one called the police. The head of ACTION at the time was Mike Balzano. Balzano was an avid Nixon supporter. Walking down the halls one time, he was heard to say “I can just smell the hate the RPCVs have for me in the air.” Balzano made a concerted effort (complete with mandatory seminars and questionnaires) to ID and get rid of the Kennedyites and fill the Peace Corps with folks of his own political ilk. He personally . . .

Phil Lilienthal (Ethiopia 1965-67) Receives the 2013 Sargent Shriver Award

Jun 25 2013

Phil Lilienthal has won the NPCA 2013 Sargent Shriver Award to be presented this coming weekend in Boston. The award is well deserved. I first met Phil and his lovely wife Lynn in Ethiopia in 1965 when they were new PCVs. Lynn was doing social work in Addis Ababa, and Phil was a lawyer working for one of the ministers. As a secondary project, Phil and Lynn started a summer camp at Lake Langano in the Rift Valley. This was the only lake, as I recall, that was free of schistosomiasis. The camp, I know, was the first of its kind, though other Volunteers had done other types of summer camps. Our own Marian Haley Beil was one of three women who had a summer camp in Debre Berhan back in 1963. Phil and Lynn had their first child in Addis Ababa. Their son would grow up to become a PCV . . .

Archive - 2013