Harris Wofford Memorial Service (Ethiopia)
RSVP AT: info@voicesforservice.org> Saturday, March 2, 2019 2:00pm Cramton Auditorium – Howard University 2455 6th Street NW, Washington, DC 20059
Read MoreReview–Tacoma Stories by Richard Wiley (Korea)
Tacoma Stories by Richard Wiley (Korea, 1967-69) Bellevue Literary Press, 2019 270 pages $16.99 (paperback) Reviewed by Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) I can’t get through a day without it. Reading, that is. Sometimes, I have a hard time going pageless for a couple of hours. I’m so habituated to reading, I can forget why I do it. Tacoma Stories just reminded me why: one reads in the hope of delight. And that’s what Wiley’s new book provides. The linked stories that make up the collection are deeply pleasureful reads. How does he do it? One way is with the sentences. Wiley writes nothing like Kafka, but the unexpected leap from one sentence to the next in Tacoma Stories can evoke Kafka’s extraordinary, nerve-jangling transitions. Apposite sentences end paragraphs where they need to be ended. They describe a character. They figure in dialogue. Real readers, true recidivists who cannot resist . . .
Read MoreKristen Roupenian (Kenya) at Mid-Manhattan Library
I went to the NYC Mid-Manhattan Library on Monday, February 25, 2019 and heard Kristen Roupenian (Kenya 2003-05) read from her new collection of short stories You Know You Want This, and be interviewed by Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker’s fiction editor. About eighty-five people crowded into the library room for the reading and discussion. The majority were women in their twenties. Kristen was entertaining and informative and appreciated by all as she told of her journey to ‘overnight’ success with the publication of “Cat Person” that appeared in the December 2017 issue of The New Yorker. A short story that quickly became an internet sensation. Ms. Treisman said that the story has the second highest ‘hits’ of New Yorker articles over the last five years on the magazine’s internet site. The short story centers on a young woman’s experience dating in a sleepy college town, but with decidedly skin-crawling twists. . . .
Read MoreReview — BROOKLYN, NY TO BOCAIUVA, BRAZIL by Franklin Rothman (Brazil)
Brooklyn, NY to Bocaiúva, Brazil: A Peace Corps Love Story Franklin D. Rothman (Brazil 1967–69) (Peace Corps memoir) Peace Corps Writers May, 2016 248 pages $14.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Almaz Zewdie Sullivan (Ethiopia 1996–98) • Franklin D. Rothman’s book, Brooklyn, NY to Bocaiúva, Brazil: A Peace Corps Love Story, brings back a lot of memories. From the start, any Peace Corps Volunteer will relate to aspects of his story. Frank’s chance encounter with Lena, who is Brazilian, at the theater brings back positive memories of how open we tend to be as PCVs and travelers in general. He and Lena meet, they click and immediately the couple begins the exciting challenge of finding commonalities and building a relationship. Despite the differences in their upbringing, it is inspiring to read a story of how a love can flourish. It is refreshing to see the level of commitment and the positive energy on . . .
Read MoreReview — HONORABLE EXIT by Thurston Clarke (Tunisia)
The title of this book is somewhat unfortunate: There was very little "honorable" about the American exit of Vietnam in…
Honorable Exit: How A Few Brave Americans Risked All To Save Our Vietnamese Allies at the End of the War e by Thurston Clarke (Tunisia 1968) Doubleday Publisher April 30, 2019 448 pages $30.00 (hardback), $14.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1965-66) • In wars we expect to read about heroes in combat. In Honorable Exit Thurston Clarke’s mines the depth of emotion that drove dozens of Americans in Vietnam to acts of heroism by risking life and careers to find ways to evacuate South Vietnamese who had connections with Americans and who would have been imprisoned or killed by the North Vietnamese. Clarke tells the story of A Few Brave Americans who during the last weeks of April 1975 smuggled 130,000 Vietnamese co-workers, secretaries, orphans, families — anyone who might become victims of North Vietnamese revenge through the perilous streets of Saigon and other cities. Don’t let the subtitle fool . . .
Read MoreNew York RPCVs create art
NY RPCVs Art Show The 5th “Peace Corps Creates . . . Art by Returned Volunteers” Art Show, will have it opening reception on March 7th. The reception (and show) is free and open to the public. Venue: 14th St Y, in Manhattan Venue address: 344 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003 (between 1st and 2nd ave) Nearest subway: L train at 14th Street and 1st Ave. Reception date and time: March 7th, 7pm–9pm Free and open to the public Telephone number: (212) 780-0800 Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/246447406231683/ Contact: info@peacecorpsnyc.org The art show will run for five weeks, March 7–April 11. People visiting New York during that time are encouraged to come and see the show. Peace Corps is based on community and connecting. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we serve abroad in very different places than where we grew up, but end up embedded in the fabric of our surroundings. These experiences have shaped us . . .
Read MoreFRONTIER CABIN STORY published by Joseph Goss (Afghanistan)
About FRONTIER CABIN STORY The Rediscovered History of a West Virginia Log Farmhouse • Frontier Cabin Story is a rare architectural biography of a long-forgotten 18th-century log farmhouse in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. In the book, Joseph Goss (Afghanistan 1967–69) relates how he dug into the origins of his ancient home to discover its age and first owner. After months of painstaking detective work, he found the holy grail of his search. Along the way, the author creates an enthralling story about an unknown frontier house and gives it context by weaving it into the sweep of the region’s history from colonial times to the present. Colorful characters from the families of the house’s earliest owners populate the story and act on the stages of the French and Indian, Revolutionary, and the Civil Wars. They even take us out to the Osage Nation in Missouri and later to Mexico. The women, . . .
Read MoreWriters! Check out the 2019 AWP CONFERENCE & BOOKFAIR in Portland
If you are interested in writing about your Peace Corps experience (or anything else!) try to attend the 2019 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference on March 27-30, 2019 in Portland, Oregan. There will be more than 550 literary events, 2,200 exhibitors and the opportunity to meet writers, learn about writing programs across the country at colleges and universities (and on line), and find out where to submit your stories and novels and get them published. Also, this year, for the first time, the conference will be holding a special exploratory meeting about how AWP can be more helpful in supporting both writers and writing that is “international”. This meeting will be held on Saturday March 30th from 8am to 9am at the conference center, and will be co-hosted by Chris Merrill of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, by Jill Goldberg of the Canadian Creative Writers and Writing . . .
Read MoreReview — TACOMA STORIES by Richard Wiley (Korea)
Tacoma Stories by Richard Wiley (Korea, 1967-69) Bellevue Literary Press, 2019 270 pages $16.99 (paperback) Reviewed by Ann Neelon (Senegal 1978-79) • In town to cash in on the NBA buzz generated by Murray State University’s versatile point guard Ja Morant, a writer from Sports Illustrated recently characterized Murray, Kentucky as “a city of 17,741 tucked into the state’s southwest corner, where on any given day you might find a horse pulling a passenger cart down 12th Street.” As someone who was incensed by the manufactured hokeyness of this comment — in 27 years in Murray, I have yet to spot a horse and cart on our main drag — I may constitute the ideal audience for Richard Wiley’s Tacoma Stories, a linked collection that gives poignant testimony to Tacoma’s gravitas as a place despite or perhaps even because of its general failure to achieve billing over . . .
Read MorePeace Corps funded at $410,500,000!
H.J.Res.31 – Consolidated Appropriations Act 2019 • For the Peace Corps (including transfer of funds) For necessary expenses to carry out the provisions of the Peace Corps Act (22 U.S.C. 2501 et seq.), including the purchase of not to exceed five passenger motor vehicles for administrative purposes for use outside of the United States, $410,500,000, of which $6,000,000 is for the Office of Inspector General, to remain available until September 30, 2020: Provided, That the Director of the Peace Corps may transfer to the Foreign Currency Fluctuations Account, as authorized by section 16 of the Peace Corps Act (22 U.S.C. 2515), an amount not to exceed $5,000,000: Provided further, That funds transferred pursuant to the previous proviso may not be derived from amounts made available for Peace Corps overseas operations: Provided further, That of the funds appropriated under this heading, not to exceed $104,000 may be available for . . .
Read MoreNew books by Peace Corps writers — January 2019
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 from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We now include a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Fury John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Crossroad Press 289 pages January 27, 2019 $4.95 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindl A single, upwardly mobile professional woman, Jennifer Winters is typical of her kind until she falls victim to events that aren’t typical at all . . .
Read MoreReview — ADORABLE AIRPORT by Jacqueline Lyons (Lesotho)
Thanks, Marnie....Wonderful!
Adorable Airport By Jacqueline Lyons (Lesotho 1992–95) Barrow Street Press 90 pages $16.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) • What could be cuter than contemplation? Quick: describe an airport with an adjective that begins with “A.” Awful? Agonizing? Aggravating? Did anyone say “adorable”? Jacqueline Lyons did. And Adorable Airport, her fourth book of poems, makes a strong case for the unexpected title. From its cover, a painting of the inside of an airport with its gentle greens and blues, its escalators and baggage carousels, and its contented characters, Lyons’ book appears aimed at children. But only a very precocious child would understand and appreciate Lyons’ sophisticated and enchanting musings on time, seasons, love, and, yes, airports. Like Lyons’ book, an airport is a stop between places, between going and coming, between home and holiday. Adorable Airport suspends time in order to reflect on it the . . .
Read MoreReview — A FEW MINOR ADJUSTMENTS by Cherie Kephart (Zambia)
A Few Minor Adjustments: A Memoir of Healing by Cherie Kephart (Zambia 1994) Bazi Publishers September 2017 254 pages $15.95 (paperback), $24.95 (hard cover), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974–76; Costa Rica 1976–77) • Cherie Kephart is the ultimate survivor. She lived through a brutal rape followed by a serious car accident while in college. Then survived both a nasty case of explosive diarrhea and possible malaria while a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia. Ten years after her Peace Corps experience she faced a myriad of severe symptoms which defied diagnosis. Through it all she keeps struggling gamely to find a treatment that will allow her to lead some semblance of a normal life and be a useful person in the world. The title, “A Few Minor Adjustments,” is ironic, borrowed from a Peace Corps pamphlet discussing the life style changes a Volunteer faces in their . . .
Read MorePeace Corps supports Women’s Global Development and Prosperity
February 7, 2019 WASHINGTON – Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen released the following statement on the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiative introduced today during a launch event at the White House with President Donald J. Trump, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, leaders from across the U.S. government, and global stakeholders. “Since its formation in 1961, the Peace Corps has advanced the empowerment of women as a pillar of development, recognizing that expanding opportunities for women can transform their futures and the futures of their families. Having served the Peace Corps in various capacities, I am especially honored to reaffirm this commitment through the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity initiative, a whole-of-government approach to advancing workforce development, promoting women’s entrepreneurship and access to capital, and removing barriers that prevent women from fully participating in the economy. “I want to thank Ella Zande for joining us . . .
Read More“The Other Kristen” by Kristen Roupenian (Kenya)
Thank you so much!
Thanks for a ‘heads up’ from Bea Hogan (Uzbekistan 1992-94) The Other Kristen Kristen Roupenian joined the Peace Corps to serve her fellow man, but she found herself trying to best the ultimate woman instead. • When I arrived in Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) in 2003, I was the youngest in my group. Life in an unfamiliar culture can be infantilizing: You’re dependent on others to teach you basic skills (this is how you dress, wash, use the toilet), your new language reduces you to baby talk (“Please where bus please?”), and you end the day exhausted by the glut of information your puny brain has taken in. Still, at 21, I was adept at dependence and incompetence, and in this case my expertise served me well. I was assigned to a site in rural western Kenya that was affiliated with an orphans center named . . .
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My deepest sympathy to Harris' family. His passing is a great loss to the country. He had grace, courage, and…