Other Book Awards
For books that don’t fit in to any other category!
Awards are presented to books published during the previous year.
To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com, click on the book cover or the bold book title, and Peace Corps Worldwide — an Amazon Associate — will receive a small remittance that will help support these annual writers awards.
Peace Corps Writers Historical Book Award
2024
“Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird”—
Searching for Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace’s Faithful Companion
Paul Spencer (Wachtel) Sochaczewski (Malaysia 1969-71 –
Peace Corps Writers Publisher’s Special Staff Award
2019
Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion
By E. Fuller Torrey (Ethiopia Staff/Medical 1964-66)
Peace Corps Writers Publisher’s Special Award
2019
Our Woman in Havana:
A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cuba
Vicki Huddleston (Peru 1964–66)
2016
Meeting the Mantis: Searching for a Man in the Desert and Finding the Kalahari Bushmen
John Ashford (Botswana 1990-92)
2015
Murder In Benin: Kate Puzey’s Death in the Peace Corps
Aaron Kase (Burkina Faso 2006-08)
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2014
The Power of Latino Leadership: Culture, Inclusion, and Contribution
Juana Bordas (Chile 1964–1966)
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2012
When the World Calls
The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years
Stanley Meisler (Staff: Peace Corps/Washington 1964–67)
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Peace Corps Collection Award
2012
For editing the definitive Peace Corps Experience series
50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories
Jane Albritton (India 1967–69), collection editor
One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo:
50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories: Volume One: Africa
Aaron Barlow (Togo 1988–90), editor
Gather the Fruit One by One:
50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories (Vol. 2: The Americas)
Pat Alter (Paraguay 1970–72), editor
A Small Key Opens Big Doors:
50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, Volume 3 — The Heart of Eurasia
Jay Chen (Kazakhstan 2005–08), editor
Even the Smallest Crab Has Teeth:
50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, Vol 4: Asia and the Pacific)
Jane Albritton (India 1967–69), editor
Advancing the Mission Award
2011
Being First: An Information History of the Early Peace Corps
Robert Klein (Ghana 1961–63, 1974–74)
2006
For his landmark Suburbia series
Bill Owens (Jamaica 1964–66)
Our Kind of People: American Groups and Rituals
IN 1972 BILL OWENS PUBLISHED a collection of photographs on suburbia entitled Suburbia. In this cult classic book photographer Owens acted as an anthropologist objectively documenting suburban inhabitants, their native environs, and their daily rituals. By pairing the images with quotes made by the subjects, Owens created a hilarious and absurd account of life in the suburbs. A life that included Tupperware parties, backyard barbecues, and going to the hairdresser.Last year Owens published the fourth and final volume in his landmark Suburbia series [Suburbia (1973; 1999), Our Kind Of People (1975), Working (1977), and Leisure (2004)]. In his introduction to Leisure, photographer Gregory Crewdson writes:Owens’ photographs belong to an American aesthetic tradition of art that explores the intersection of everyday life and theatricality. Like the paintings of Edward Hopper, the photographs of Walker Evans and Diane Arbus, and the short stories of John Cheever and Raymond Carver, Owens’ photographs find unexpected beauty and mystery within the American vernacular.While most RPCVs take photos, Owens has made it an art form. It is true that one of Bill’s photographs is worth a thousand words. And for that, and for his genius in capturing the host country nationals (HCNs) of America, Peace Corps Writers presents Bill Owens its first Award for Artistic Merit for his career in documenting on film the America society that created the Peace Corps.