Author - John Coyne

An Apricot Year, New Mexico author Martha Egan’s newest novel, is scooping up a bumper crop of prizes this season. Last November the book won two NM/AZ Book Awards, one for Fiction and one for Design. In the last few weeks it has been the recipient of still more kudos. An Apricot Year also won Honorable Mention in the Novels category in the New Mexico Press Women’s 2013 Communications Awards. The Independent Publisher gave it a Bronze IPPY medal for Mountain West Regional Fiction during Book Expo in New York. This is the third of Ms. Egan’s fiction titles to win this prize. On June 28th, An Apricot Year won a Bronze ForeWord Book of the Year Award for Multicultural Fiction announced at the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago. Set in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, An Apricot Year follows a woman who leaves an . . .

Africa on My Mind: Living Peace Corps’ Third Goal by Angene Wilson (Liberia 1962–64) A Peace Corps Writers Book $10.00 210 pages February 2013 Reviewed by Julie R. Dargis (Morocco 1984–87) “Once upon a time, I planned to write a novel set in Liberia,” writes Angene Wilson in her recent book, Africa on my Mind. “I was not alone. A number of Peace Corps Volunteers have wanted to be novelists or at least writers of memoirs. My novel would feature Liberians, of course . . . I described Mother Mae . . .. She adjusted the knot of the lappa cloth she’d wrapped around her faded housedress. The lappa was bright blue and red . . .. Behind gold-rimmed glasses, her liquid brown eyes laughed and her voice was gently mocking, but her rather thin lips remained pressed together in a straight line . . ..” Wilson reached out to . . .

I’m told that the panel for writers & film makers at the NPCA Conference this weekend in Boston was well attended and much appreciated. As one person wrote me: “It was a great hour, the room was full. People were engaged. We had a good discussion among everyone there. Wonderful as always to be among Peace Corps people.” Thanks to the panel for making it happen, and thanks to the new head of the NPCA, Glenn Blumhorst, for asking PeaceCorpsWriters to be part of the program. Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963–65) has worked in films and television as a writer, producer and director for 40 years. He recently completed Waging Peace: The Peace Corps Experience, a documentary that weaves the letters, journals, emails and blogs written by Volunteers with the profiles of four former Volunteers who, in their work today, are still making a difference. • Will Siegel (Ethiopia 1962–64) taught secondary . . .

What: RPCV Writers and Filmmakers Panel Where: NPCA Conference When: Saturday, June 29, –1:30 to 2:30 Who Is On The Panel? Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963–65) has worked in films and television as a writer, producer and director for 40 years. He recently completed Waging Peace: The Peace Corps Experience, a documentary that weaves the letters, journals, emails and blogs written by Volunteers with the profiles of four former Volunteers who, in their work today, are still making a difference. • Will Siegel (Ethiopia 1962–64) taught secondary school in Addis Ababa and at the Haile Selassie I School for the Blind; he was also part of a team that authored original text books. Following his return to the US, Will attended graduate school at San Francisco State University and wrote TV scripts for an early Showtime series as well as training videos for large corporations. • Rajeev Goyal (Nepal 2001–03) new book, . . .

The Vast Unknown: America’s First Ascent of Everest by Broughton Coburn (Nepal 1973-75) Crown Publishers (a division of Random House). $26.00 300 pages 2013 Reviewed by Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) This is a book of true high adventure. Good reading for those of us who like outdoor adventures and severe challenges. This book is full of them, start to finish. Just a little past half way along, the story of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition reaches a dramatic climax, of sorts. On May 22, 1963, standing ready to challenge the peak from a point high on the ridge, the two American climbers, Hornbein and Unsoeld, faced a strategic decision. “Favorable luck, strange omens, obstacles, and argument be damned,” they thought. “The dazzling, vast unknown¾a key threshold to the uncertainty… was beckoning them forward and upward.” This “was no longer an academic exercise,” writes Brot Coburn, this was a decision . . .

[RPCV Writers, Editors and Film makers will hold a session at the NPCA Conference in Boston this month, June 28-29. For more information, call 202.293.7728 x 13. Check out: www.peacecorpsconnect.org/annual-gathering/ If you are going to the conference, check out the Writers’ Panel. Here are the details: Panel: Telling Your Peace Corps Story – RPCV Writers and Filmmakers. Moderator: Allen Mondell. Panelists: Will Siegel, Rajeev Goyal, and Cynthia Phoel. RPCVs will receive practical insight on creative ways for writing and producing films about their Peace Corps experience.] Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963-65) has worked in films and television as a writer, producer and director for 40 years.  He began his career as a newspaper reporter in Baltimore and then went to work for Westinghouse Broadcasting in Baltimore (WJZ-TV) as a writer/director of documentary films. Allen spent five years at public television station KERA-TV in Dallas as a writer, producer and director of . . .

[It is time to nominate your favorite Peace Corps book published in 2012. Make your nomination(s) in the comment section following this announcement so people can see what books have been recognized. You may nominate your own book; books written by friends; books written by total strangers. The books can be about the Peace Corps or on any topic. The books must have been published in 2012. The awards will be announced in August. Thank you for nominating your favorite book written by a PCV, RPCV or Peace Corps Staff. A framed certificate and money are given to the winners.] Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award First given in 1990, the Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award was named to honor Paul Cowan, a Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Ecuador. Cowan wrote The Making of An Un-American about his experiences as a Volunteer in Latin America in the sixties. A longtime activist and . . .

The Unwinding by George Packer (Togo 1982-83) Farrar, Straus and Giroux $27.00 432 pages 2013 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) It seems unfair to criticize something for not being what it never intended to be. Imagine Hemingway being criticized for not including an analysis of 1940s fishing yields in the Caribbean in The Old Man and the Sea. Or the Rolling Stones being rebuked for not slipping a violin concerto into Exile on Main Street. Or Georgia O’Keefe being taken to task for not depicting an occasional tractor or bulldozer or tomato soup can in her orchid series. In his June 9 review of George Packer’s The Unwinding, David Brooks, in the New York Times Book Review, faults the author for failing to provide a “theoretical framework and worldview” that would explain the lives and situations Packer examines. Brooks, a Times op-ed columnist, compares The Unwinding to John Dos . . .