Archive - January 30, 2014

Talking to Eleanor Stanford (Cape Verde 1998-2000) Author of História, História As Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) sums up in her review on our site last, “Eleanor Stanford is a marvelous writer; she’s earned her place among the very best in the canon of Peace Corps writers, indeed a high honor.” Where did you serve, Ellie? I was in Fogo, Cape Verde as a TESL teacher. Did you travel much in the rest of Africa? No, not really. I was in Senegal briefly, but mostly I was Cape Verde. Where are you from in the States? The Philadelphia area, though I went to school at New College of Florida in Sarasota. What got you into the Peace Corps? I wanted to travel. I wanted an adventure. But mostly I hoped that there was something I could to benefit other people in some way. When did you decide to write a book . . .

Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71) is back with a new novel. This is Tom’s first novel in seven years.  At the heart of this book is a love triangle: two men, one woman, all of them writers. The first chapters are set in the mid-eighties in New York City. At Columbia, Ben forms a bond with his macho friend, Hank. Their bond is deep and ostensibly formed around their love of writing. But they soon find out their love is more than literary. As C.S Lewis says, friendship is homosexual. Hank is straight, though, on the Kinsey scale a zero, which means no men. Ben is a five, which means an occasional woman. But both are artists, and this affection between them is a force. How do you measure love? The second part of the book, almost a decade later, takes place in Portland, Oregon.  A now-ill Ben falls for Ruth, . . .