Author - John Coyne

The Peace Corps Writers Next on: Next Monday, 11:00 on BBC Radio 4 Synopsis President John F Kennedy sent out an ‘army’ of everyday US citizens to every corner of the globe – the Peace Corps. His big idea was to counter the idea of the ‘ugly American’ and in some way stem the spread of communism. Bridget Kendall goes to the United States to meet former Peace Corps volunteers and evaluate their role as America’s ‘missionaries of democracy’. And to hear, in their own words, their incredible tales. Up to a point, JFK’s concept was to fill skills and training gaps in developing countries, similar UK’s VSO (Volunteer Services Overseas). Beyond that was an explicit mission to open America up to the world, to learn about foreign peoples and customs, and bring that knowledge back to out-of-touch Americans. After 50 years, 200,000 volunteers have returned home from far-flung regions . . .

[Books published in 2010 and Nominated for the Peace Corps Writers Award] Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award Faith, Interrupted: A Spiritual Journey by Eric Lax (Micronesia 1966-68) Henry Walters and Bernard Berenson: Collector and Connoisseur by Stanley Mazaroff (Philippines 1961-63) The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick by Gene Stone (Niger 1974-76) Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading the Way by Steven Radelet (Western Samoa 1981-83) Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell (Uzbekistan 1996-97) Lyndon B. Johnson by Charles Peters (PC/Staff 1961-63) Thoreau the Land Surveyor by Patrick Chura (Lithuania 1992-94) Maria Thomas Fiction Award Last Train From Cuernavaca by Lucia St. Clair Robson (Venezuela 1964-66) Green Pearl Odyssey by Reilly Ridgell (Micronesia 1971-73) The Plum Rains and Other Stories by John Givens (Korea 1967-69)  Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories by Cynthia Morrison Phoel (Bulgaria 1994-96)  Gloryland by Shelton Johnson (Liberia 1982-84)  A Dead Hand: A Crime . . .

In an earlier blog I told you about Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02; Madagascar 2002-03)  new novel, Mule, that is being published in September. Here’s how his publisher Houghton Mifflin is promoting it on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMa0jOijtx4  

Tarnished Ivory: Reflections on Peace Corps and Beyond by Peter Bourque (Ivory Coast (1973–75) Xlibris 224 pages $19.99 2011 Reviewed by P. David Searles (PC staff/Philippines CD 1971–74; PC Dep Dir 1974–76) TARNISHED IVORY REALLY HAS TWO AUTHORS — one is twenty-something-year-old Peter Bourque, who provides the main text, and the other is sixty-year-old Peter Bourque, who provides editing and commentary. That would be a more accurate description of who wrote what in this fascinating look at Peace Corps service in Ivory Coast in the 1970s.  During his service in Ivory Coast Bourque kept a journal and a diary and also wrote “hundreds of pages” (his count) to friends and family in the U.S., especially to a “significant other” back at the University of Michigan. Thirty-five years later the now older, more mature, and wiser Bourque has edited this material, made interesting and revealing comments on it, and provided some . . .

In Search of the Rose Notes by Emily Arsenault (South Africa 2004–06) William Morrow $14.95 369 pages July 2011 • Girls of the Factory: A Year with the Garment Workers of Fes by M. Laetitia Cairoli (Morocco 1985–87) University Press of Florida 256 pages $60.00 March 2011 • Colombia: Pictures & Stories by Sandy Fisher (Colombia 1962–64) Self-published $60.00 (signed) TheMarket@brookviewfarm.com 212 pages January 2011 • The African American Odyssey of John Kizell: A South Carolina Slave Returns to Fight the Slave Trade in His African Homeland by Kevin G. Lowther (Sierra Leone 1963–65) University of Southern Carolina Press $39.95 336 pages May 2011 • Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine by James C. McCann (Ethiopia 1973–75) Ohio University Press 240 pages $26.95 2009 • Bread from the Sky by Maria McCarthy (Togo 1996–98) Amazon Digital Services $4.99 Kindle January 2011 • InGear: Peace Corps & Beyond by . . .

Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02; Madagascar 2002-03)  has contributed to The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, Outside, Salon, Granta, McSweeny’s and other magazines. He is a recipient of the Sue Kaufman Prize, the O. Henry Award, the Florida Book Awards gold and silver medals for fiction, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His novel The Konkans, was a Best Book of the Year in Washington Post Book World, Christian Science Monitor and Publishers Weekly. Tony was nominated for a National Magazine Award for coverage of Nicaragua’s Eric Volz murder trial, all after he spent three years in Africa. He lives now in St. Louis with his wife, a graduate student in creative writing, and their two young children. In September Mule: A Novel of Moving Weight, Tony’s third novel, will be published by Houghton Mifflin. It is a story of a young couple hard hit by . . .

Emily Arsenault (South Africa 2004-06) first novel, The Broken Teaglass, was selected by The New York Times as a Notable Crime Book of 2009. She has now just published In Search of the Rose Notes, a psychological mystery about broken friendship and the unease of revisiting adolescent memories. Emily writes, “My initial intention was to write a suspense novel that dealt with some of the darker aspects of adolescence. I wanted to write about a female character in her twenties who, while relatively content as an adult, had a difficult adolescence that she still struggles to understand. I started with that character–Nora–and built the other aspects of the book (the friendship with Charlotte, Rose’s disappearance, the Time-Life books) around her.” Before the Peace Corps and South Africa, Emily  worked as a lexicographer and an English teacher. While she grew up in Connecticut, today she lives with her husband, who served with her in . . .

Years On and Other Travel Essays Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975–77) iUniverse May 2011 211 pages Paperback $18.95 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–02; Madagascar 2002–03) AFTER READING LARRY LIHOSIT’S COLLECTION, Years On and Other Travel Essays, I find myself scratching my head as to why the author subtitled his book “travel essays,” for it was certainly the wrong phrase to use. While these twelve well-crafted and engaging essays — spanning some thirty years of his adventures and work in such places as Mexico, Honduras, and Bolivia — do take us to many foreign locales, to label Lihosit’s experiences as”travel” would be to denigrate what he’s accomplished. Let Theroux claim the word “travel,” for that’s what he does: sips coffee on trains while scrimshawing cribbed and crotchety notes. Lihosit, on the other hand, should have used something like Essays of Reckless Immersion, Essays of Fomenting Revolution, Essays of Giving . . .