Archive - February 2023

45 Specialized Manuscript Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions [There is no particular organization to this list. Not all of the publishers on this list are currently open to submissions. However, there are many listed here who are interested in international topics and experiences such as you have had. There might be a publisher listed who would be interested in your articles or books. JC] SmartPop is “actively looking for smart, quirky, engaging non-fiction titles on television, books, and film.” They are open to anthologies, as well as single author titles. The work could be an official, authorized guide, or an unofficial one. Jessica Kingsley Publishers (JKP) focuses on publishing high quality books for professional and general readers on a variety of subjects. They are best known for their books on the autism spectrum, social work, arts therapies, mental health, counseling, palliative care, practical theology and gender diversity. They also publish graphic novels . . .

Ukraine: One Year On: A Light in the Darkness by Jeff Walsh (South Africa 2016-18) When one of the Ukrainian refugees in the class I was teaching in Poland told me she was studying to become an opera singer, I didn’t know what to expect. She was a thin teenager with a slight build wearing a white pullover, safe from the violence she’d recently fled. She sang for a few moments and I was stunned. Her soprano voice was like a songbird. When I think of a “Soprano”, I tend to think of those rough and tumble, made-for-tv mobsters  from New Jersey, not a beautiful talented songstress who can hit silky, satin high notes of every octave. Kate was my student at UNICEF in Poland, a safe haven for refugees away from war torn Ukraine and great place for kids to learn. I had no idea that I had a songbird in my . . .

As we prepare to celebrate the 62nd anniversary of an  agency that appears to be ‘disappearing’ from the view of most Americans, if not Congress and the White House, we might ask why? How often do we hear, “Is there still a Peace Corps?” from the men and women on the street. It seems that for the public the Peace Corps faded away with the “Kennedy Generation.” But what brought about the Peace Corps in the first place? I thought I might try and chart the impulses that brought about its creation. These ‘impulses’ we might say are close to being lost in the fog of history. There were, however, several generally accepted desires that coalesced in the last days of the Fifties, framed by a number of people in speeches and in prose, and with the election of John F. Kennedy, became a reality as a federal agency. Most . . .

Do you want to write a novel? Do you have a great story that you need to tell? Is there this little nagging voice in the back of your mind that has been saying all your life: ‘Go ahead and do it! Write your story!’ Do you want to finally stop reading books and start writing one of your own? If you know you’ll never be satisfied until you sit down and write your novel; if you’re tired of people saying, “You’re not a real writer.”; if you know in your heart that you can do it, then begin! The truth is all writing begins in the human heart. But then, how do you unlock what’s in your heart and write your novel? Here’s how: You do it in the next 100 days. Over the next three months, you will write and rewrite your novel by following the simple instructions . . .

One of the unintended consequences of Peace Corps Volunteers is a library shelf of memoirs, novels, and poetry. Unlike travel writers who seek new lands to explore, and unlike anthropologists who find foreign societies puzzles to comprehend, Peace Corps Volunteers arrive, as we know, in-country with some hope that they can do some good. And many, when they come home, want to share their incomparable experiences and insights. While the Peace Corps is being defined today mostly in memoirs, it is noteworthy that early Peace Corps-inspired writings were mainly fictional. During the 1950s, two societal impulses swept across America. One impulse that characterized the decade was detailed in two best-selling books of the era: the 1955 novel by Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and the non-fiction book, The Organization Man, written by William H. Whyte and published in 1956. These books looked at the “American way . . .

by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) •     In 1961, Franklin Williams began to work at Peace Corps HQ as Chief of the Division of Private Organizations, working with CARE, the Experiment in International Living, YMCA, etc. A lawyer and a leader in civil rights cases, he was a friend of Harris Wofford who interested Williams in working for the federal government at the new agency. Years later, when I was managing the Peace Corps Recruitment Office in New York, the recruiters came up with the suggestion that we should ‘honor’ an African American RPCV who was helping us in the city to recruit ethnically diverse PCVs. I thought it would be great to give a special presentation, and name it after an early African American staffer — Franklin H. Williams — who had recently passed away. I spoke to Chuck Baquet, also an African American, a Somalia RPCV (1964-66), . . .

The awards are: The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award The Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award The Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Award for Best Peace Corps Memoir The Award for Best Book of Poetry The Award for Best Short Story Collection The Award for Best Travel Book The Rowland Scherman Award for Best Photography Book The Marian Haley Beil Award for the Best Book Review The Award for Best Children’s Book about a Peace Corps Country Submit your favorite book(s) published in 2022. Send your selection(s) to John Coyne: jcoyneone@gmail.com List what award your selection should be given. The awards will be announced in August 2023. Thank you. Publisher: Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64) Editor: John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Peace Corps Historian: Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) Book Reviewer: Dean W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76); Costa Rico (1976-77)