Bob Shacochis (Caribbean) writes about Peace Corps Writers

Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76) pinpoints how Peace Corps writers are in step with great writers from previous generations.

“We are torchbearers of a vital tradition — that of shedding light in the mythical heart of darkness.

We are descendants of Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, and scores of other men and women, expatriates and travel writers and wanderers, who have enriched our domestic literature with the spices of Cathay, who have tried to communicate the ‘exotic’ as a relative, rather than an absolute, quality of humanity.”

What America has gained through the writings of these Volunteers are methods of understanding the parts of the world and the cultures most Americans never see. By writing about the developing world and emerging democracies, Peace Corps Writers have broadened the landscape of American literature, enriching the national cannon with internationally flavored prose and poetry.

Peace Corps writers have come of age as literary persons. Peace Corps writers tell the stories of life in the developing world. It is perhaps a small claim to make in the world of literature, but it’s theirs alone to make.

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Bob Shacochis

Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975–76) grew up in McLean, Virginia. He was educated at the University of Missouri and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. Shacochis has been a GQ columnist and writer for numerous other national publications and is the author of — among others — Easy in the Islands, a collection of stories; the novel Swimming in the Volcano; a work of literary reportage about Haiti, The Immaculate Invasion; a second collection of stories, The Next New World; and a collection of essays on food and love, Domesticity.