Archive - 2014

from The Denver Post Kent Haruf, 1943-2014: An astute observer of rural life in the West By Lisa Kennedy With the death of novelist Kent Haruf, Colorado has lost one if its celebrated native sons, its astute and wise observer of rural life and community on Colorado’s Eastern Plains. The prize-winning author of the acclaimed trilogy “Plainsong,” “Eventide” and 2013’s “Benediction” – all set in the fictional town of Holt, Colo. – died Sunday at the age of 71. The cause was interstitial lung disease. He is survived by his wife, Cathy, and three daughters. Additional survivors are three stepdaughters and two stepsons. “He really was a giant,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said Monday of the writer, who was born in Pueblo in 1943. Among Haruf’s many literary honors were the prestigious Whiting Foundation Award for his first novel, “The Tie That Binds“; the Center of the American West’s Wallace Stegner Award, . . .

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. Launched in 2006, it has already established itself as one of the world’s most prestigious literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. As an offshoot of the Dayton Peace Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards a $10,000 cash prize each year to one fiction and one nonfiction author whose work advances peace as a solution to conflict, and leads readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. Additionally, the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award is bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize’s mission; previous honorees include Wendell Berry, Taylor Branch, Geraldine Brooks, Barbara Kingsolver, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Tim O’Brien, Studs Terkel, and Elie Wiesel. “The Woman . . .

100 Things to Do in Tampa Bay before You Die by Kristen Hare (Guyana 2000–02) St. Louis: Reedy Press June 2014 140 pages $16.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993-96) Kristen Hare describes her Peace Corps experience in Guyana as “sweaty, wonderful, sad and hard, and I’d do it again in a second.” Kristen married a Guyanese man and, in 2012, they moved to Tampa with their children. Kristen has the soul of a reporter. Presently a reporter for The Poynter Institute, she previously worked as a staff writer with the St. Louis Beacon and as a features writer with the St. Joseph News-Press. Her stories have earned national honors, including the Darrell Sifford Memorial Prize in Journalism from the University of Missouri and first place wins from the Society for Features Journalism. I loved her blog, Hard Corps, a collection of hilarious, horrible Peace Corps stories. So, . . .

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com, click on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance that will help support our annual writers awards. • Ladyboy and the Volunteer (Peace Corps Memoir) by Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91) Peace Corps Writers November 2014 288 pages $13.99 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) • Water Skiing on the Amazon: A Memoir for My Grandchildren (Peace Corps Memoir) by Patricia S. Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962–64) Jewelweed October 2014 166 pages $20.79 (paperback) • Unhinged: Reflections, Opinions, Humor, Reminiscences, an Occasional Rant, Reportage — A Random Chronicle of Our Times (Essays) by Gerald Karey (Turkey 1965–67) Small Batch Books October 2014 414 pages $19.95 (paperback) • Mongolia Monologues: The Trials, Tribulations, Triumphs and Truths of a Feisty, Fifty-Something Peace Corps Volunteer by Joanne Nussbaum (Mongolia 2010–12) . . .

The current issue of The New Yorker (December1, 2014) carries a long, long piece by George Packer (Togo 1982-83) entitled “The Quiet German” that focuses on Angela Merkel, who Packer calls, “the most powerful woman in the world.” Packer, who has been a staff writer for magazine since 2003, last spring was an Axel Springer Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Merkel, who George writes, gives few interviews and almost always to German publications, and all anodyne, declined to speak to him. That said, this is a fascinating account of Merkel, and comes with a page of ‘head shots’ of the woman done by Herlinde Koelbl who has been photographing Merkel since 1991. Koelbl was one of many people that Packer interviewed for this article. Merkel might not have much to say, but she does, it seems, like to have her photo taken, though Packer reports Koelbl said, “Merkel . . .

A Writer Writes Red Dress Magic by Karel Amaranth Karel Amaranth is a family friend (she attended college with my wife) and has a Bachelors degree in English and Creative Writing, and a Master of Arts degree in Fine Arts and Art Therapy.  She completed a Masters degree in Public Health at New York Medical College writing her thesis on an innovative project to address maternal mortality. While not an RPCV (well, no one is perfect) she has been working for 3 years with the Rotary Club of Makindye in Kampala, Uganda as the co-founder of Holistic Care for Mothers.  She traveled to Uganda this past summer to visit health facilities and women’s groups  to assess the needs of the communities and assist in strategic planning with Rotary Clubs, health providers and government officials, including the King of Tororo.  Holistic Care for Mothers has distributed more than 10,000 birthing kits . . .

In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China by Michael Meyer (China 1995–97) Bloomsbury Press February 2015 384 pages Pre-order: $28.00 (Hardcover), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by William Siegel (Ethiopia 1962-64) I’ve had an interest in literature about China since I discovered a volume of translated Chinese poems on my parent’s bookshelves. The book, a handsome hardbound edition in bright orange linen, had a picture on the front of a lone figure in flowing robes standing on a boat poling across a swift river. Inside was a poem by Li Po titled “The River Merchant’s Wife.” In the poem, as a nine or ten year old, I first found that words could evoke feelings such as the notion of longing. Michael Meyer’s absorbing second book about China (his first, The Last Days of Old Beijing, is one I’m looking forward to reading), brings us a fresh, inside . . .

The main character in Laurence Leamer’s (Nepal 1964-66) book, The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption, Donald L. Blankenship, was indicted on four criminal counts by a federal grand jury yesterday in West Virginia. He was charged with widespread violations of safety rules and deceiving federal inspectors. 29 men died in 2010, the worst coal mine disaster in West Virginia in 40 years. In today’s New York Times, Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia is quoted with saying, “As he [Blankenship] goes to trial, he will be treated far fairer and with more dignity than he ever treated the miners he employed. And, frankly, it’s more than he deserves.” The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption won the 2014 Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award presented by Peace Corps Writers. [For those not familiar with early Peace Corps history, Jay Rockefeller, when he was . . .