July 4, 2023 – Peace Corps Worldwide

2023 Winner of the Peace Corps Writers‘ Maria Thomas Award for Best Fiction

Jul 04 2023

The World Against Her Skin: A Son’s Novel John Thorndike (El Salvador 1967-68) The World Against Her Skin is an extraordinary work, written by a mature, highly published author. John Thorndike defines his book as a “Son’s Novel,” a hybrid memoir/novel or “biographical novel.” It is his endeavor to know his mother, as he openly states in his “Author’s Note, “I want to know everything about my mother,” especially the secrets that were kept from him as her son. He inhabits this woman character in order to know her. His are the height of literary goals; find truth through your imagination, cross boundaries through sympathy and empathy, and do it because you need to for survival. It beautifully flies in the face of current stricture to only write what you can know as determined by your gender, race, ethnicity, class and so on. Thorndike completely succeeds in capturing feelings that many . . .

RPCV Author Guy Biederman (Guatemala)

Jul 04 2023

“I began writing as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala as a form of self-defense. The goat herder’s shack where I lived had been built out of green planks by an American Baha’i. When the wood dried, huge gaps appeared in the walls. Poetry became my wallpaper and my insulation. Over the years I’ve often wondered whether writing has gotten me into more jams than it has gotten me out of.” Guy Biederman (Guatemala 1981-82) is the author of six collections of short work, including his most recent, Translated From The Original: One-inch Punch Fiction from Nomadic Press, and 300 of his stories and poems have appeared in literary journals such as Carve, MacQueen’s Quinterly, great weather for MEDIA, Flashback Fiction, and Exposition Review, where he was twice a winner in their Flash 405 contests. His work has received a Publisher’s Choice Award, an Editor’s Choice Award, nominations for Best . . .

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