August 16, 2020 – Peace Corps Worldwide

2020 Peace Corps Writers Paul Cowan Award for the Best Book of Non-Fiction — RACE ACROSS AMERICA by Charles B. Kastner (Seychelles)

Aug 16 2020

THE PAUL COWAN NON-FICTION AWARD, first given 1990, was named to honor Paul Cowan, a Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Ecuador from 1966 to 1967. Cowan wrote ≈ about his time 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. Race across America: Eddie Gardner and the Great Bunion Derbies by Charles B. Kastner (Seychelles 1980-82) Syracuse University Press 360 pages December 2019 $75.00 (hard cover), $29.95 (paperback), $16.17 (Kindle) On April 23, 1929, the second annual Transcontinental Foot Race across America, known as the Bunion Derby, was in its twenty-fifth day. Eddie “the Sheik” Gardner, an African American runner from Seattle, was leading the race across the Free Bridge over the Mississipi River. Along with the signature outfit that earned him his nick name white towel tied around his head, white shorts, and a . . .

2020 Peace Corps Writers Moritz Thomsen Award for Best Book about the Peace Corps Experience — ERADICATING SMALLPOX IN ETHIOPIA edited by James W. Skelton, Jr. et al

Aug 16 2020

THE PEACE CORPS EXPERIENCE AWARD was initiated in 1992, and it has been presented annually to a Peace Corps Volunteer or staff member, past or present for the best depiction of life in the Peace Corps — be it daily life, project assignment, travel, host country nationals, other Volunteers, readjustment. Initially entries were short works including personal essays, storys, novellas, poems, letters, cartoons, and songs. 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. Since 2009, memoirs are also considered for The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award. Eradicating Smallpox in Ethiopia: Peace Corps Volunteers’ Accounts of Their Adventures, Challenges and Achievements Editors: Gene L. Bartley (Ethiopia 1970–72, 1974–76), John Scott Porterfield (Ethiopia 1971–73), Alan Schnur (Ethiopia 1971–74), James W. Skelton, Jr. (Ethiopia 1970–72) Peace Corps Writers 486 . . .

Archive - August 16, 2020