Archive - August 2014

Peace Corps Writers began presenting awards for Best Children’s Book in 2001. • CONGRATULATIONS to Jim Averbeck for winning the 2014 Peace Corps Writers Best Book for Children award for his charming story The Market Bowl that he both wrote and illustrated. The Market Bowl is set in Cameroon and was published in 2013. Jim will receive a small cash award, and a certificate. Peace Corps Writers asked Jim a few questions about the Peace Corps, Cameroon, and writing books for children (and their parents) that he has agreed to share with us. .Why the Peace Corps? When I graduated from college I felt my life was becoming consumed with chasing money, instead of learning and growing. So when a friend jokingly told me I should join the Peace Corps, I explored the possibility. And the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to do it. It seemed . . .

THE PEACE CORPS EXPERIENCE AWARD was initiated in 1992. It is presented annually to a Peace Corps Volunteer or staff member, past or present for the best depiction of life in the Peace Corps. It can be a personal essay, story, novella, poem, letter, cartoon, song or memoir. The subject matter can be any aspect of the Peace Corps experience — daily life, assignment, travel, host country nationals, other Volunteers, readjustment. In 1997, this award was renamed to honor Moritz Thomsen (Ecuador 1965—67) whose Living Poor has been widely cited as an outstanding telling of the essence of the Peace Corps experience. • CONGRATULATIONS to Eleanor Stanford (Cape Verde 1998–2000) for winning the  2014 Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award for her memoir História, História: Two Years in the Cape Verde Islands. Eleanor will receive a small cash award, and a certificate. This is the second Peace Corps Writers Award . . .

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com, click on the book cover, the bold book title, or the format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance that will help support our annual writers awards. • Long Ago and Far Away (novel) by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) A Peace Corps Writers Book 342 pages July 2014 $18.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) • Letters from Yemen (Peace Corps letters) by Mary Lou Currier (Yemen 1991–94) CreateSpace 158 pages June 2014 $21.00 (paperback) • Church of the Adagio: Poems by Philip Dacey (Nigeria 1963–65) Rain Mountian Press 95 pages July 2014 $15.00 (paperback) • Dead Not Dead (mystery) by John Charles Miller (Dominican Republic 1962–64) CreateSpace 150 pages 2013 $9.99 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) • The Italian Letter (non-fiction) by Peter Eisner and Knut Royce (Ethiopia 1962–64) Amazon Digital July 2014 288 print pages $5.95 . . .

FIRST GIVEN IN 1990, the Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award was named to honor Paul Cowan, a Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Ecuador from 1966 to 1967. Cowan wrote  The Making of An Un-American about his experiences as a Volunteer in Latin America in the ’60s. A longtime activist and political writer for The Village Voice, Cowan died of leukemia in 1988. • CONGRATULATIONS to Laurence Leamer for winning the 2014 Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award from Peace Corps Writers for his legal thriller that tells the story of a coal giant CEO who sets out to destroy a small mine owner in West Virginia, The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption published in 2013. Larry receives a small cash award, and a certificate. . Review of The Price of Justice first published in Peace Corps Writers on April 17, 2013 The Price of Justice: A True . . .

. 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. • CONGRATULATIONS to Dan Close (Ethiopia 1966–68) for winning the 2014 Maria Thomas Fiction Award from Peace Corps Writers for his historical novel set in Ethiopia in 1896, The Glory of the Kings, published in 2013. Dan receives a small cash award, and a certificate. . Review of The Glory of the Kings first published in . . .

Rush of Shadows by Catherine [Fitch] Bell (Brazil 1966–68) was chosen by the Washington Writers Publishing House (WWPH) as the fiction book it will published in 2014. The WWPH sponsors an annual competition for writers living in the Washington-Baltimore area working in fiction and poetry. The winning works in these two categories comprise the pair of books that WWPH publishes each year. “Rush of Shadows evokes the clash between natives and settlers in 19th century California through the friendship of two women — one white, one Indian. Tough-minded and lyrical, Rush of Shadows brings to life the human dimensions of a tragic conflict which corrupted the winners and left the losers to haunt the landscape as shadows.” The official publication date for Rush of Shadows is October 15th, however it currently can be purchased at Amazon. Rush of Shadows (historical fiction) by Catherine Bell (Brazil 1966-68) Washington Writers Publishing House . . .