Archive - May 2018

1
THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS finalist in Multicultural Fiction 2018 International Book Awards
2
JFK: The Last Speech–Documentary on American Public Television
3
Talking with Ambassador Vicki Huddleston (Peru)
4
Michael Meyer Interviews Georges Borchardt in the Paris Review (China)
5
The Peace Corps Wins Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR)
6
Talking with Madeline Uraneck (Lesotho)
7
Write a Novel in 18 Holes–Writers Helping Writers
8
Honoring Sargent Shriver & Special Olympics
9
Mark Walker makes video about Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond (Guatemala)
10
OUR WOMAN IN HAVANA published by Vicki Huddleston (Peru)
11
New York City “Story Slam!”
12
Talking with Joanna Luloff about her new novel (Sri Lanka)
13
Jody Olsen on Federal Drive Radio
14
Looking for Our RPCV Ambassadors
15
Management Challenges: Peace Corps and the Office of the Inspector General

THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS finalist in Multicultural Fiction 2018 International Book Awards

  The Girl in the Glyphs (Peace Corps Writers, 2016) by David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963–65), and co-authored with his late wife, Maria Nieves Edmonds, is an award-winning finalist in the Multicultural Fiction category of the 2018 International Book Awards. Glyphs was also the recipient of a 2016 first place literary award from the International Latino Book Awards, first place Royal Palm Literary Award of the Florida Writers Association (FWA) and a silver (2017) from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association (FAPA). Edmonds’ prequel to Glyphs, The Heretic of Granada, about a priest on the run from the Inquisition, was just published by Southern Yellow Pine Publishers. It is available at Amazon or Barnes & Nobles. • The Girl in the Glyphs: A Novel David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963–65) and Maria Nieves Edmonds A Peace Corps Writers Book January 5, 2016 354 pages $12.99 paperback; $4.99 Kindle  

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JFK: The Last Speech–Documentary on American Public Television

  JFK:The Last Speech by Jan Worth-Nelson (Tonga 1976-78) • EVEN 55 YEARS LATER, the life-changing effects of John F. Kennedy and Peace Corps service continue to resonate for several former Volunteers featured in an upcoming documentary distributed by American Public Television. The film, JFK: The Last Speech, from Northern Light Productions, spotlights how an October, 1963, a visit by JFK transformed four Class of ’64 graduates of Amherst College. The film will air on more than 40 public television stations nationwide the first week of June. About the speech Three weeks before  President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, he delivered a speech at Amherst at the groundbreaking for the Robert Frost Library. Frost had been a professor at Amherst for years, was a colorful presence on the campus, and had died the previous January. It was JFK’s last major speech, and it was described as “majestic” and one . . .

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Talking with Ambassador Vicki Huddleston (Peru)

  Ambassador Vicki Latham Huddleston (Peru 1964–66) is a retired career Senior Foreign Service Officer who recently published a memoir, Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cuba. Over her thirty year career in foreign affairs she has worked for the Department of State, USAID, and the Department of Defense. Her last government assignment was as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from June 2009 through December 2011. Before that she was Chargé d’Affaires ad interim to Ethiopia, United States Ambassador to Mali, Principal Officer of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar. She was Chief of United States Interests Section in Havana from 1999–2002 and was earlier the Deputy and then the Coordinator of the Office of Cuban Affairs. Prior to joining the Department of Defense, she was a visiting scholar . . .

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Michael Meyer Interviews Georges Borchardt in the Paris Review (China)

Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) who we recently talked to about his new book,  The Road to Sleeping Dragon just interviewed for the Paris Review famous literary agent Georges Borchardt who sold Waiting for Godot, Night, and hundreds of other modern classics. As Michael wrote me, “Borchardt’s take on the industry is fun to read.” https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/23/the-life-and-times-of-literary-agent-georges-borchardt/  Michael is also the author of In Manchuria, and The Last Days of Old Beijing. He teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

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The Peace Corps Wins Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR)

May 22, 2018 WASHINGTON – The Peace Corps won its 11th consecutive Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR) award for its proven track record of financial transparency. The Association of Government Accountants (AGA) presents the CEAR award to federal agencies annually for producing high-quality Performance and Accountability Reports or Agency Financial Reports. The agency will be honored in a ceremony this evening. “As a federal agency, we answer to the American people – a responsibility we take seriously at the Peace Corps,” says newly appointed Chief Financial Officer Richard Swarttz. “I am proud to join a team that is committed to better reporting year over year. I thank both Andrew Pierce and Paul Shea for demonstrating strong leadership during their respective terms as Acting Chief Financial Officer.” For its creativity and innovative thinking in financial reporting, the Peace Corps is also the proud recipient of several special awards for agencies . . .

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Talking with Madeline Uraneck (Lesotho)

  Madeline Uraneck (Lesotho 2007-09) is an educator and writer who has visited sixty-four countries through her role as International Education Consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, several Peace Corps assignments, and her passion for world travel. Her writing has appeared in K–12 curriculum materials, educational handbooks on culture and policy, and publications including WorldView Magazine, Hotline, Global Education, WorldWise Schools, and Isthmus, for which she received a Milwaukee Press Club award. • Madeline, tell us a little about yourself. I’m an Okie, raised by liberal parents in oil country and America’s Bible Belt.  My dad said I had to go to college out of state, so I ended up at Grinnell College in Iowa, then University of Wisconsin in Madison, both bastions of the Midwest, to study Psychology then Education. I’ve been in and out of Wisconsin for 50 years now, from the campus demonstrations of the late 60s . . .

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Write a Novel in 18 Holes–Writers Helping Writers

A few years ago I published a book entitled How To Write A Novel in 100 Days. Now I thought I might attempt to tighten that frame of reference (and time) and focus on, How To Write a Book in 18 Holes. Over my writing career, I have published three novels on golf and edited three books of golf instruction. Now I have some advice on how to do both for anyone who writes or plays golf, or both, like myself. Write a Novel in 18 Holes In my mind, playing golf and writing a novel are curiously connected. Each is achieved by determination, dedication and singleness of purpose. While most golfers play for fun in foursomes, those who want to develop their game, play alone, often early in the day or late in the evening when it is cool and quiet and the course is empty. As golfers know, . . .

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Honoring Sargent Shriver & Special Olympics

“Working with Sargent Shriver at the Peace Corps was one of the best experiences of my professional life, and our friendship continued to grow. Sarge gave his all to service – domestic, international, anti-poverty, anti-racism, justice, equality and freedom for all. Throughout the last two decades of his life, Sarge continued to devote himself to service for the intellectually challenged as the Chair and CEO of Special Olympics.  Let’s honor Sarge and his Sargent Shriver Special Olympic Global Messengers.  Harris Wofford Instrumental in forming the Peace Corps Peace Corps Director/Ethiopia; Special Rep to Africa Associate Director of the Peace Corps ***** Sargent Shriver was a man of conviction and courage. He stood for important things with a reputation of not letting anyone down. He was outstanding.  C.. Payne Lucas Co-founder AFRICARE, President 31 years; Peace Corps Director Togo & Niger; RPCV ’60s ********* “During these times which cry out for heroic action, we should remember that no couple . . .

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Mark Walker makes video about Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond (Guatemala)

  “The Making of  Different Latitudes” is a 3:30 minute video of Mark  talking about his Peace Corps book, published by Peace Corps Writers last year. His son was the cameraman, an RPCV, Hal Rifken, directed the video, and a local t.v. producer, Donald Griffith, edited it. Watch:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZmJhe-E9rc&feature=youtu.be • Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971–73) Peace Corps Writers April 2017 332 pages $18.00 (paperback)    

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OUR WOMAN IN HAVANA published by Vicki Huddleston (Peru)

[Not a Review} Our Woman in Havana chronicles the past several decades of U.S.-Cuba relations from the bird’s-eye view of State Department veteran and longtime Cuba hand Vicki Huddleston, our top diplomat on the ground in Havana under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. After the U.S. embassy in Havana was closed in 1961, relations between the countries ground to a halt. In 1977, the U.S. established the U.S. Interests Section to serve as a de facto embassy. Ambassador Huddleston’s spirited and compelling memoir about her time as a diplomat in Havana and beyond takes the reader through some of the most tense and dramatic years of Castro’s Cuba, from her first days going face-to-face with Fidel Castro, pressing to improve relations and allow hundreds of thousands of Americans to visit Cuba, to the present day, as she peers forward to the future of the relationship. She writes incisively about the . . .

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New York City “Story Slam!”

Proudly presents, STORY SLAM! This could be YOU onstage! Got a medical horror story? Can’t stop talking about your digestive track? Did you ever rescue a dog from a latrine? If so, you may have been a Peace Corps Volunteer! Come hear true tales of adventure and what it was really like to have the toughest job you’ll ever love told LIVE at our 7th Annual Peace Corps Story Slam! As we all know, Peace Corps is 27 months of continuous funny, poignant, and amazing stories. When RPCVs tell stories, they humanize and illuminate places and people with that unique, grassroots, Peace Corps perspective. We’ll have a brand new batch of stories this year, all sure to make you laugh, cringe, and cry … maybe all at once. But wait, there’s more! We are taking a cue from our friends at The Moth and hosting our first open-mic storytelling telling show! Think that you have a GREAT story to tell? Well, . . .

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Talking with Joanna Luloff about her new novel (Sri Lanka)

Joanna Luloff received her MFA from Emerson College and her PhD from the University of Missouri. Before all of those years of graduate school, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Baddegama, Sri Lanka. Her short stories have appeared in The Missouri Review, Confrontation, Western Humanities Review, Memorious, and New South, and her collection The Beach at Galle Road was released by Algonquin Books in October, 2012. Her debut novel Remind Me Again What Happened is forthcoming in June from Algonquin. She is an Assistant Professor of English at University of Colorado Denver. More information at www.joannaluloff.com. Joanna, where were you before the Peace Corps? Well, I was born in Belgium, but my family moved to Massachusetts when I was quite young. I grew up in Southboro, a small town near Worcester. I went to Algonquin Regional High School, then on to Vassar College for my BA, Emerson College . . .

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Jody Olsen on Federal Drive Radio

  New Peace Corps director Jody Olsen most enjoys seeing ‘people change’  May 7, 2018 9:03 am        Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. • Tom Temin Interviews Jody Olsen Jody Olsen cannot quite seem to leave the Peace Corps behind. She volunteered in Tunisia for the Corps in the 1960s. In between various jobs, she has returned to the Peace Corps as a country director and deputy director. Now she has returned again, this time as director. She was sworn in just a month ago and joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin in the studio. Career Peace Corps Staffer Jody Olsen gives a short interview on Federal Drive and praises (without naming) past Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and how Carrie led “historic reforms to modernize the agency.” Olsen mentioned the changes in Recruitment and the application Carrie did and how that . . .

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Looking for Our RPCV Ambassadors

Could you help me? We have many, many RPCV Ambassadors and I am trying to track down their names and Peace Corps countries, as well as, email addresses so I might interview them for an article about how PCVs have gone from their tours onto careers in the Foreign Service, much as JFK envisioned when he created the agency. Take a look at the list and send me your additional names as well as updates to the information I have collected. Write me at: jcoyneone@gmail.com . Many thanks for your help.   Charles C. Adams Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Finland (???), (PCV Kenya 1968 – 1970) Frank Almaguer, U. S.Ambassador to Honduras (Belize 1967–1969) Michael R. Arietti, U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda (India ?–?) Charles R. Baquet III U.S. Ambassador to Republic of Djibouti  (Somalia 1965-67) Robert Blackwill, U. S. Ambassador to India  (Malawi 1964 – 1966) Richard Boucher, Deputy Secretary-General of . . .

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Management Challenges: Peace Corps and the Office of the Inspector General

There are no Peace Corps Volunteers working in Washington. The heart and soul of Peace Corps are Volunteers working all over the world. But the management machine which places and supports them is in Washington DC. It is a federal agency and like many federal agency, it has its problems, or in bureaucratic speak: “Challenges”. In a recent report by the Peace Corps’s Office of the Inspector General, this observation was made: “The Peace Corps is a small agency that finds itself challenged to meet its global mission while at the same time complying with all of the requirements of a Federal agency. While the Peace Corps has shaped its core values around Volunteer wellbeing, commitment to national service, and other areas related to quality programming, diversity, and innovation, the agency has not made complying with Federal laws, regulations, and other requirements a priority.” (page 11, https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.peacecorps.gov/documents/inspector-general/Management_and_performance_challenges_WEB_page_numbers.pdf) I can almost hear . . .

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