Archive - February 2023

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45 Specialized Manuscript Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions
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OFF THE RAILS: Weird, Wicked, Wacky & Funny Stories by Jerome McFadden (Morocco)
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NAKED poems by Bobba Cass (Nigeria)
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John Givens (Korea) — IRISH WALLED TOWNS
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The Legendary PCV Post Card
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Maggie (Wolcott) Nurrenbern (Ecuador) running for state senate
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 Ukraine: One Year On: A Light in the Darkness  by Jeff Walsh 
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The Peace Corps at 62
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How To Launch Your Novel–The First Ten Days
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Using Peace Corps Literature to Teach Global Awareness, Critical Thinking, and Service Learning
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Who We Are: Peace Corps Writers
12
Johnnie Carson (Tanzania) Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders
13
The Franklin Williams Award — Where It Began
14
Review | LOUIE by David Mather (Chile)
15
Nominate Best RPCV Book of 2022

45 Specialized Manuscript Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions

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 . . .

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OFF THE RAILS: Weird, Wicked, Wacky & Funny Stories by Jerome McFadden (Morocco)

  What happens if no one else sees the creatures calling to you from your back yard? Or your perfect crime is not as perfect as you planned? What if a city-dweller on vacation meets a tribe of head hunters in the middle of the jungle? Or if the best player on the boys’ high school sports teams . . . is a girl? What happens if everything you thought you understood goes . . . OFF THE RAILS? In this eclectic collection of twenty-six stories, multi-award winning author, Jerome W. McFadden, takes a warped view of robbers, gang-bangers, killers, cowboys, dead people (who might not know they’re dead), and the idiosyncracies of rural life in the mythical town of East Jesus, Texas. These fast-paced tales explore the satirical edges of crime, paranoia, human foibles, and the afterlife. Some of the stories are weird, some are wicked, some are wacky, . . .

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NAKED poems by Bobba Cass (Nigeria)

From creative writing at Leicester 2/25/23   Bobba Cass is a gay man, father and grandad. He grew up in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. where he benefitted from education for all, not just the selected. He now lives in Leicester. He has a liberal arts degree from Willamette University, and advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and De Montfort University. Transformative was Peace Corps and subsequent life in Nigeria, 1963-1967. In addition to travelling along the cadences of poetry, he has written a collection of creature fables for children in the series, From Gramps with Love, as part of Creatures Creatives Collective. He has completed three semi-autobiographical novels taking himself from childhood in Seattle to being evacuated from Nsukka, Nigeria at the beginning of the Biafran War. His new collection of poems is one of a series of limited editions of poems including four and twenty, fourteen and Leicester Skies. Websites are here and here. About naked by Bobba Cass naked is a collection . . .

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John Givens (Korea) — IRISH WALLED TOWNS

  Native Californian John Givens teaches fiction writing in Dublin. Givens was a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea. He studied art and language in Kyoto for four years. Givens attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and graduated with an MFA in creative writing. He worked in Tokyo as a writer and editor for eight years. Givens also worked at K2 Design in NYC, and at Digitas and Landor Associates in San Francisco. Givens’ published novels are: Sons of the Pioneers, A Friend in the Police; and Living Alone. His short story collection, The Plum Rains, was published in Dublin by The Liffey Press. Short stories have appeared in literary magazines in the US, Europe and Asia. His non-fiction publications include Irish Walled Towns and A Guide to Dublin Bay: Mirror to the City. . Irish Walled Towns John Givens (Korea 1967-69) Liffey Press Publisher August 2008 280 pages $79.98 (Hardback)  

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The Legendary PCV Post Card

  Marjorie Mitchelmore was a twenty-three-year-old magna cum laude graduate of Smith College when she became one of the first people to apply in 1961 to the new Peace Corps. She was attractive, funny, and a smart woman and was selected to go to Nigeria. After seven weeks of training at Harvard, her group flew to Nigeria. There Marjorie and the other Trainees were to complete the second phase of their teacher training at University College at Ibadan, fifty miles north of Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. By all accounts, she was an outstanding Trainee. Then on the evening of October 13, 1961, she wrote a postcard to her boyfriend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here is what she had to say: Dear Bobbo: Don’t be furious at getting a postcard. I promise a letter next time. I wanted you to see the incredible and fascinating city we were in. With all the . . .

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Maggie (Wolcott) Nurrenbern (Ecuador) running for state senate

Missouri State Representative Maggie Nurrenbern Launches Campaign for State Senate District 17 Press Release, February 22, 2023   Today, Missouri State Representative Maggie Nurrenbern, who was elected to represent House District 15 in 2020, is announcing her campaign for State Senate District 17. “I’ve always been proud to call the Northland home and I know we need leaders who will stand up as a voice of moderation, bring people together and actually achieve results that make a positive difference for our community. That’s exactly what I’ve done as a State Representative, working across the aisle, I’ve worked to deliver real solutions and investments in education, infrastructure and healthcare,” said State Representative Maggie Nurrenbern. “Now, I’m running for State Senate because as a mom of three, former local public school teacher and dedicated community volunteer, I have a renewed purpose to fight for great public education for every kid in our state, . . .

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 Ukraine: One Year On: A Light in the Darkness  by Jeff Walsh 

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 . . .

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The Peace Corps at 62

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 . . .

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How To Launch Your Novel–The First Ten Days

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 . . .

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Using Peace Corps Literature to Teach Global Awareness, Critical Thinking, and Service Learning

Thanks for the “heads up” from Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65)   The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love: Using Peace Corps Literature to Teach Global Awareness, Critical Thinking, and Service Learning   Christina Chapman, M.Ed. Instructor of Developmental Reading Coordinator of Developmental Communications Lewis and Clark Community College • I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) from 1988-1990. One of the first new words we were taught during the training was animation. Animation, a French word meaning liveliness, was what we called the process of teaching. This term signified a new way of thinking about the teaching process; movement and life through education. This idea of someone gaining energy and forward movement was a heady concept to try to apply to my job as an agriculture extension agent in central Africa. Now, as a developmental reading teacher in central United States, I realize that the . . .

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Who We Are: Peace Corps Writers

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 . . .

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Johnnie Carson (Tanzania) Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders

  MEDIA ADVISORY | February 23 Digital Press Briefing with Johnnie Carson, Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation   EVENT:  Please join us on Thursday, February 23, 2023, for a digital press briefing with Ambassador Johnnie Carson, Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation. Ambassador Carson will discuss his recent high-level engagements with African leaders on the margins of the AU Summit and his plans to continue his important dialogues with members of civil society and the business community. After brief remarks, Ambassador Carson will take questions from participating journalists. Date: Thursday, February 23, 2023 Time: 10:00 Johannesburg | 09:00 Abuja | 8:00 GMT | 03:00 Washington Language: English. Ground rules: The briefing will be on the record. Login info: To be provided upon RSVP. RSVP: Please RSVP by clicking here  Twitter: Join the conversation at #AFHubPress; follow us @AfricaMediaHub.    Biography: Johnnie Carson Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation Ambassador Johnnie Carson was appointed as . . .

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The Franklin Williams Award — Where It Began

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), . . .

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Review | LOUIE by David Mather (Chile)

    Louie — 5th in the Crescent Beach Series by David J Mather (Chile 1968– 70) Peace Corps Writers August 2022 323 pages $14.95 (paperback), $7.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Dean Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76 and Costa Rica 1976-77) • 330 pages, 37 short chapters, Louie is another opportunity to enjoy David Mather’s unforgettable characters from Florida’s rural Big Bend region on the gulf coast, also known as the Redneck Riviera. This is another page-turner, leaving you wondering where the time went after spending a couple hours immersed in the story. And the chapters are short enough that you feel like you could read just one more! I strongly recommend that you read the whole five book series starting with Crescent Beach, followed by Raw Dawgin’, then The Biloxi Connection and Gator Bait, then finally this volume. However, this well-written novel also stands on its own very well. Most of the . . .

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Nominate Best RPCV Book of 2022

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)

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