Archive - 2022

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HAUSALAND DIVIDED by William F.S. Miles (Niger)
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RPCV Author Lucinda Jackson (Palau)
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32 Magazines That Accept Longer Fiction
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“Chic” Dambach (Colombia) School of Global Studies Fellowship
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“Ask Not . . . ” by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia)
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Glenn A. Blumhorst (Guatemala) writes about his new job
7
Here’s a story I never told anyone — Richard Wiley (Korea)
8
Appointment of Chris Dodd as Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas
9
THE PANDEMIC PROPHET about early Peace Corps CD Reginald E. Petty
10
Where Books Go to Die
11
Review — BABUSYA’S KITCHEN by Ukraine RPCVs
12
One of the Best Thriller and Mystery Novels of 2022 – Richard Lipez (Ethiopia)
13
Former Peace Corps Director Dick Celeste Writes Memoir
14
The Fabulous Peace Corps Book Locker
15
Museum of the Peace Corps Experience Hires Director

HAUSALAND DIVIDED by William F.S. Miles (Niger)

  How have different forms of colonialism shaped societies and their politics? William F. S. Miles (Niger 1977-79) focuses on the Hausa-speaking people of West Africa whose land is still split by an arbitrary boundary established by Great Britain and France at the turn of the century. In 1983 Miles returned as a Fulbright scholar to the region where he had served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Already fluent in the Hausa language, he established residence in carefully selected twin villages on either side of the border separating the Republic of Niger from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Over the next year, and then during subsequent visits, he traveled by horseback between the two places, conducting archival research, collecting oral testimony, and living the ethnographic life. Miles argues that the colonial imprint of the British and the French can still be discerned more than a generation after the conferring of . . .

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RPCV Author Lucinda Jackson (Palau)

Author Interview—Lucinda Jackson by Heili Eliason Lucinda Jackson (Palau 2016) is the author of two memoirs: Just a Girl: Growing Up Female and Ambitious, about her struggles to succeed in the male-dominated work world, and Project Escape: Lessons for an Unscripted Life, an exploration of freedom after leaving a structured career. Jackson is a PhD scientist and global corporate executive who features on podcasts and radio and has published articles, book chapters, magazine columns, and patents. She is the founder of LJ Ventures, where she speaks and consults on energy, the environment, and empowering women in the workplace and in our Next Act. Connect with Jackson or find her books at: www.lucindajackson.com. Interview Who or what inspires you to write? I get inspired by having something to say. I feel this burning concept or thought inside me and I just have to get it out! It is this need to express myself, to make sense . . .

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32 Magazines That Accept Longer Fiction

  32 Magazines That Accept Longer Fiction by S. Kalekar There are many literary magazines that accept stories of up to 5,000 words, or shorter; this list, however, has magazines/outlets that take longer fiction, of up to 6,000 words or more. Many also accept other genres, like nonfiction and poetry. Some of these pay writers. Not all of them are open for submissions now, but many are. They are listed in no particular order. Arcturus Magazine Their website says, “We have no restrictions on the content we publish, except that we’re passionate about publishing new perspectives — new ideas, new voices, new worlds, new challenges, new ways of seeing — a theme that can take an infinite number of shapes, including speculative fiction, flash fiction, experimental poetry, political essays, narrative reportage, and virtually everything else.”  Send prose of up to 7,000 words. This is a sister publication of the Chicago Review of Books. Details here. Night Shift Radio: The . . .

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“Chic” Dambach (Colombia) School of Global Studies Fellowship

Monday, November 21, 2022   The School of Global Studies at Oklahoma State University has introduced a prestigious fellowship program for college kids with a profession curiosity in international peace. The Fellowship, named after OSU alumni Charles “Chic” Dambach (Colombia 1963-65), will present funding for college kids in the graduate program of Global Studies and allow a brand new technology of peacemakers to graduate from OSU. Dambach started his tutorial profession at Oklahoma State University in 1962, when he got here to OSU on a soccer scholarship. After a shoulder damage rendered him unable to proceed enjoying soccer, Dambach had the alternative to discover different pursuits past the classroom, and interact in social, cultural and political points. He labored with different college students at OSU to deliver points of political and cultural significance to campus, typically placing them at odds with OSU directors. Inspired by the activism he skilled throughout . . .

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“Ask Not . . . ” by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia)

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) • In 1963, I became a Peace Corps Volunteer, assigned to La Plata, a small village of some 3,000 residents nestled at the 4,000 feet level of Colombia’s Andean mountains. It had no telephone systems, though there were episodic telegraphic services.  On what soon would became a fateful morning of November 22, 1963, I had taken a bus into the Departmental capital, Neiva, to obtain some governmental authorizations of Community Development Funds for one of our projects.  Like most every bus in our area, firmly set above the driver’s head were three pictures with Christmas tree lights around them: Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and President John F. Kennedy. Later in the afternoon, about 3:30 PM or so, before boarding the bus for the trip back, I stopped at a newsstand to see if it had a recent copy of Time Magazine. There was one copy . . .

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Glenn A. Blumhorst (Guatemala) writes about his new job

  November 9, 2022 Dear Friends, Sargent Shriver urged us to “Serve, serve, serve! For in the end, it will be the servants that save us all.” It is fitting that today – Shriver’s birthday – I continue my service to the Peace Corps community in my new role as the lead fundraiser for the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation (PCCF). I am grateful for the warm welcome extended by Tony Barclay and the PCCF Board of Directors as we embark on an $8 million capital campaign to underwrite the design and construction of a commemorative work on the National Mall that honors the creation of the Peace Corps in 1961 and those aspects of the American character exemplified by Peace Corps service. Peace Corps Park will forever be a place in which to gather and reflect; to be inspired by the Commemorative’s meanings and messages; and to share in programmed activities embodying . . .

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Here’s a story I never told anyone — Richard Wiley (Korea)

Raw Potato Bridge by Richard Wiley (Korea 1967-69)   Here’s a story I never told anyone. One evening in August of 1967 I was walking to our Peace Corps training’s makeshift bar with my roommate, Tom, when he asked me in the kind of shaky voice that signaled deep naiveté back then, “Look, don’t laugh, but do you have to be circumcised to have sex with Jewish girls?” We were strolling along with our hands in our pockets, both our brows furrowed. “I don’t think so,” I said, but did Tom have a particular girl in mind? Someone in our group? I tried to think, but I hardly knew who was Jewish and who wasn’t, and Tom had never mentioned anyone. Tom was from Birmingham, Alabama. He was big (6’2”, 270 pounds), and he’d lost his father to a fire his father started himself, in an alcoholic stupor, in, of . . .

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Appointment of Chris Dodd as Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas

Senator Chris Dodd will serve as Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas, following up on his role as Special Advisor for the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June.  Senator Dodd will help advance the implementation of key initiatives President Biden announced at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, spanning economic cooperation, migration, health, human rights, food security, as well as other priorities. He will also support the work currently being done by Vice President Harris, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, USAID, and others. Additionally, he will support preparations for the upcoming Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver in April 2023. In his decades as a dedicated public servant, starting as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic and through his time on the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Senator Dodd has built trust with many . . .

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THE PANDEMIC PROPHET about early Peace Corps CD Reginald E. Petty

  Left Bank Books  at 399 N. Euclid Street, St. Louis, presents St. Louis author Jaye P. Willis, with Reginald E. Petty in our store on November 21st at 6 p.m. Join us in the store or on YouTube Live Page. This is a poetic and prose praise song to Mr. Reginald E. Petty. He is from a small town in Southern Illinois called East St. Louis. It is now considered an economically deprived city, but it never stopped his drive and passion to make it better, as well as himself. The book speaks to his upbringing and what makes him a legend to not only the citizens of his hometown, but throughout the world — particularly in Africa. Mr. Petty was one of the first African American Peace Corps Country Directors, appointed by the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. He served in several African nations and went on to . . .

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Where Books Go to Die

  by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64)   There was an almost perfect copy of Papa: Hemingway in Key West 1928-1940 by James McLendon who I knew when I lived briefly in Key West. Tucked inside this Popular Library paperback [which, by the way, sold for .95 cents when it was published in 1972] was an article about Hemingway from an April 12, 1999 Newsweek. It was about the publication of True at First Light, the last writings of Papa edited by his son Patrick. I also picked up a brand new copy of The Sportswriter, a novel by the Pen/Faulkner winning writer Richard Ford, as well as a collection of short stories, The Next New World written by one of my favorite Peace Corps writers, Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76). None of these books were library marked. They had, however, been given to the library. And they were now stacked on . . .

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Review — BABUSYA’S KITCHEN by Ukraine RPCVs

  Babusya’s Kitchen: Recipes for Living & Eating Well in Ukraine by Returned Peace Corps Ukraine Volunteers RPCV Alliance for Ukraine, publisher 216 pages $30.00 (hardcover) Review by: D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76, and Costa Rica 1976-77) • This is a beautiful cookbook! My favorite part is the pictures of dishes ready to serve, but the photos of Ukrainian scenery and people are a close second. The authors/editors are all Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who served in Ukraine (I love their self-assigned titles so much that I will include them here): Cortney Copeland — Director of Official Stuff Patricia Deignan — Voice of Reason and Logic Sarah Friedman — Communications Wiz Sandy Jacobs — Culinary Storyteller Sarah Kate (Monroe) Demchuk — Professional Book Wrangler Casey Ritter — Captain of Team Morale Colleen Smith — President of Punctuation There is a section full of Ukrainian recipes and one full of . . .

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One of the Best Thriller and Mystery Novels of 2022 – Richard Lipez (Ethiopia)

  The Washington Post has selected Knock Off the Hat by Richard Stevenson (Dick Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64) as one of the 12 Best Thriller and Mystery Novels of 2022. Dick Lipez, writing as Richard Stevenson, died this year, shortly before the publication of this standout. (Stevenson, writing under his real name, Richard Lipez, was also a frequent Washington Post reviewer.) The story — In post-World War II  Philadelphia, detective Clifford Waterman is trying to help a man charged with “disorderly conduct” following a raid at a gay bar. The seemingly small case sends Waterman into a world of corruption involving a dangerous judge who preys on the city’s gay population.   Knock off the Hat Richard Stevenson (Richard Lipez – Ethiopia 1962-64) Amble Press, 2022 222 pages 17.99 (paperback), $8.69 (Kindle)  

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Former Peace Corps Director Dick Celeste Writes Memoir

  Dick Celeste has released a book In the Heart of It All, An Unvarnished Account of My Life in Public Service published by Kent State University Press By Sabrina Eaton, cleveland.com    LAKEWOOD, Ohio – Democratic former Ohio Gov. Dick Celeste feels like he’s one of the last people in his family to write a book. His wife, Jacqueline, is already a published author. When Celeste was U.S. ambassador to India, she collaborated with their toddler son, Sam, on a children’s book about a mouse living in the U.S. Embassy. At age 85, the Lakewood native has released his first book, a memoir titled “In the Heart of It All: An Unvarnished Account of My Life in Public Service,” published by Kent State University Press. It follows his life from his childhood through his university days at Yale and Oxford, covering his Ohio political career, diplomatic service, and presidency of Colorado . . .

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The Fabulous Peace Corps Book Locker

The Fabulous Peace Corps Book Locker, Part I For a short period of time in the very first years of the Peace Corps all Volunteers were given book lockers by the agency. The lockers were to be left behind in schools, villages, and towns where PCVs served as seeds for future libraries. There is some mystery of who first thought to give PCVs these lockers and one rumor has it that the idea came from Sarge Shriver’s wife, Eunice. The first locker was put together by a young foreign service officer who left the agency in the very early days of the agency to teach at Claremont College in California. In a letter that Shriver wrote to the early PCVs about the locker, he said, “We know you need books. This Booklocker of paperbacks and inexpensive publications is designed to meet that need. It includes classics and contemporary writing by . . .

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Museum of the Peace Corps Experience Hires Director

Museum of the Peace Corps Experience Hires Director WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Museum of the Peace Corps Experience has selected Dr. Zack Klim as its director. He joins the Museum from his current role as Executive Director of Global Affairs and Experiential Learning at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University (NYU). His new appointment will begin on January 2, 2023. Klim has been in leadership at NYU’s Global Programs division since 2008. Throughout his tenure at NYU, he interfaced with colleagues around the world to develop learning and research opportunities, fundraise, and foster understanding across cultural and socioeconomic divides. In his role as Executive Director, he successfully procured funding to ensure international learning opportunities would be accessible to all. His collaboration with faculty in the Visual Arts Administration program were vital to the launch of an international leadership Program in Visual Arts Management . . .

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