Author - John Coyne

The 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards were announced yesterday and One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, edited by Aaron Barlow (Togo 1988-90), won the Silver Award in the Travel Division.  This is the first of four books edited under the direction of  Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) and published by Travers’ Tales, an imprint of Solas House. In 2007, Albritton initiated a project to collect Peace Corps stories in four volumes to publish this year on the 50th Anniversary. At that time, she named the project Peace Corps at 50 (www.peacecorpsat50.org). Jane and three other editors collected and edited these books over the last four years. Two of the books in the series-One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo: Africa,  and Gather the Fruit One by One: The Americas, are now available. The next two volumes-A Small Key Opens Big Doors: The Heart of . . .

Joan Richter is the wife of early Washington, D.C. Evaluator and Deputy Director of the Peace Corps in Kenya, Dick Richter, and is a  long-time successful short story writer. We were privileged to publish one of her stories in our collection of Peace Corps fiction, Living On The Edge, published by Curbstone Press in 2000. She has recently published a collection of her stories, The Gambling Master of Shanghai: And Other Tales of Suspense, with our new imprint, Peace Corps Writers. It is the third book that we have published this year and I asked her recently a few questions about her writing and her Peace Corps connection and experiences. • Joan, what’s you connection to the Peace Corps? My husband Dick Richter was an evaluator for Peace Corps from 1963 to 1965, and then deputy director of PC/Kenya from 1965 to 1967. Our two sons, age 5 and 7 . . .

Vietnam Journeys Photos by Charles Fields Text by Mary Ann Bragg (Botswana 1980–82) Fields Publishing $50.00 264 pages 2011 • I Did What I Had to Do by James E. Diamond (Chad 1971– ) Vantage $14.95 334 pages 2010 • The Caddie Who Won The Masters by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Peace Corps Writers $13.50 316 pages 2011 • The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Barefoot Running by Thomas Hallowell (Morocco 2006–08) and Dr. Craig Richards Alpha $18.95 352 pages 2011 • The Everything Travel Guide to Ireland by Thomas Hallowell (Morocco 2006–08) and Katie Kelly Bell Adams Media $15.95 432 pages 2010 • Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook by Travis Hellstrom (Mongolia) Lulu $15.95 256 pages 2010 • You Never Try, You Never Know: Six Years in Liberia by Ruth Jacobson (Liberia 1971–74) Court Street Press $18.95 (paperback); $6.95 (e-book) 402 pages 2011 • The Gambling Master of Shanghai: And . . .

Remembering Moritz Thomsen Loren Finnell  (Ecuador 1964-66) It was a Saturday afternoon on a summer day in 1964, and we were in a respite from the daily grind of Peace Corps training at Montana State College (now Montana State University).  The two of us were somewhat comfortably situated on a rocky ledge in the wilderness areas outside of Bozeman, watching the roaring flow of the river below and the passing wildlife, as well as taking in the breathtaking view of mountainous terrain.  Mostly, however, we were just glad not to be in language lab repeating Spanish dialogues that we barely understood the meaning of or rushing off to learn something about the geography and political history of Ecuador. We were free to enjoy what we were going to be doing for the next 36 hours…….absolutely nothing! My friend, who I was just getting to know, was a 48-year-old, chain smoking, pig . . .

The Lion of Judah in the New World: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and the Shaping of Americans’ Attitudes toward Ethiopia by Theodore M. Vestal (APCD Ethiopia 1964–66) Praeger $44.95 231 pages 2011 Reviewed by Martin Benjamin (Ethiopia, 1962–64) POLITICAL SCIENTIST THEODORE M. VESTAL tells the story of Haile Selassie, focusing on the Emperor’s relationship with and visits to the United States. It’s a good story, well told. Haile Selassie emerged on the world stage in 1936 when Italy invaded Ethiopia. The exiled Emperor then made a dramatic presentation before the assembly of the League of Nations, requesting that sanctions be imposed on Italy. Though his appeal was unsuccessful, Haile Selassie became something of a celebrity. He was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year and his speech was later included in many textbooks on international relations. Needing a morale-boosting success in the early days of World War II, the . . .

Soldiers of God (graphic novel) by Kelly Clancy (Turkmenistan 2004–06) Sixta Comics (www.thedivinebanquet.com) $15.00 256 pages 2010 Reviewed by Ian Kreisberg IF YOU ARE INTERESTED in reading a smart, challenging, visceral, slightly unnerving comic which compellingly and uniquely shares the converging story of two people in a style that is both familiar and foreign authored by someone who spent two years in Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan and paid for by the co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then may I suggest Soldiers of God by Kelly Clancy? Or, to expostulate, there is something about Soldiers of God that is flawlessly unsettling (not the same as unsettlingly flawless, the book has flaws) and embedded in the book’s DNA. There are patches of narration that unsettle because you don’t know who the speaker is, you only know that you believe in them and, when they combine with the spidery scrawl of the lettering, . . .

A Russian Requiem Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979–80) AJAR Contemporaries March 2011 461 pages Paperback $22 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–02; Madagascar 2002–03) ROLDAN MERULLO’S 1993 NOVEL, A Russian Requiem, has been re-released by AJAR Contemporaries. Coming new to the book, I can’t help but draw parallels between his take on the last days of the USSR and the contemporary changing of the guard we are fortunate to be witnessing in North Africa, bloody as it’s been. For those of us old enough — yes, there is already a generation too young to remember drunk Boris Yeltsin waving the Russian flag from the hood of a tank in Red Square — the lightning quick obliteration of the Iron Curtain seemed, to me, at least — having practiced hiding under my school desk in Chicago through the ’80s as the nuns conducted our nuclear attack drills — something so monumental . . .

This essay (# 3) is the last from Andrew Clark’s (Senegal 1978-80) unfinished memoir Lost and Found in West Africa. While there is much more in this manuscript, it would be up to the family (Michiko Clark especially) to publish it as a book. But for now, thank you, Michiko, for sharing these short pieces with us.] Birth After I had been in Bidiancoto about a month, a very special event occurred. I knew that Ruby Diallo, Mamadou Boye Sow’s only wife, was expecting their second child. No one ever talked directly about pregnancy, fearing bad luck and “evil spirits.” Nevertheless, it was obvious Ruby was expecting, and very soon. One of my friends remarked that Ruby’s stomach “wasn’t just full of millet and leaf sauce.” That was as close as anyone came to saying that Ruby was expecting. I spent a lot of time in the compound with Ruby, and in many . . .