August 20, 2020 – Peace Corps Worldwide

2020 Peace Corps Writers Award for Best Travel Book — EUROPE BY BUS by Steve Kaffen (Russia)

Aug 20 2020

Europe By Bus: 50 Bus Trips and City Visits Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) 371 pages SK Journeys Publisher May 2019 $16.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Craig Storti (Morocco (1970-72) Europe by bus? Really? Does anyone travel by bus who doesn’t have to? Aren’t buses for commuters? OK, tour buses, for sure. But Steve Kaffen is not talking about tour buses; he’s talking about buses as in the way go to from one city to another—all across Europe, for heaven’s sake! Who would do that when you can take a nice, comfortable train? I was skeptical. Can you tell? But then I’m an American, and intercity bus travel is not nearly as common in the US; we have cars for that sort of thing. But one of the revelations in Kaffen’s book is how well-developed intercity bus travel is in Europe, within the same country and from one country to . . .

Bob Vila (Panama) on ONE TRUE PODCAST talks about Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cuba

Aug 20 2020

The first installment of One True Podcast, produced by The Hemingway Society, features Bob Vila (Panama 1969-70) talking about his involvement in “saving” Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cuba. Having been to Cuba on a tour with the NPCA several years ago, it was a great chance for me to remember my visit, going with NPCA director Glenn Blumhorst. (If the NPCA ever gets a chance to return to Cuba, go!) Meanwhile, listen to this 50 minutes of Bob talking about his connection to Cuba, where his parents and relatives all were from, and how he was involved with the project where Ernie lived most of his life after leaving Paris. It is at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/347030/4981130 This episode was recorded on 5/27/2020.

2020 Peace Corps Writers’ Award for Best Book of Short Stories — YOU KNOW YOU WANT THIS by Kristen Roupenian (Kenya)

Aug 20 2020

You Know You Want This: “Cat Person” and Other Stories by Kristen Roupenian (Kenya 2003-05) Gallery/Scout Press 240 pages January 2019 $10.99 (hardcover), $14.99 (paperback), $11.99 (Kindle) • “Cat Person’s” author’s bad-date story and her date with fame By Meredith Goldstein Boston Globe December 29, 2018, 7:13 p.m. Last December, writer Kristen Roupenian was sitting at Cultivate, a coffee shop in Michigan, with her girlfriend of a few months. It had been a big year for the Plymouth native, who’d finished her master of fine arts at the University of Michigan in April. Her short story “Cat Person ” had been accepted by The New Yorker (the dream of many aspiring fiction writers) and was now up on the magazine’s website. Just then Roupenian’s girlfriend, writer Callie Collins, checked her phone. Something strange was happening. “She used to work in publishing so she has more of a finger on the literary pulse . . .

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