Author - John Coyne

Do you want to write a novel? Do you have a great story that you need to tell? Is there this little nagging voice in the back of your mind that has been saying all your life: ‘Go ahead and do it! Write your story!’ Do you want to finally stop reading books and start writing one of your own? If you know you’ll never be satisfied until you sit down and write your novel; if you’re tired of people saying, “You’re not a real writer.”; if you know in your heart that you can do it, then begin! The truth is all writing begins in the human heart. But then, how do you unlock what’s in your heart and write your novel? Here’s how: You do it in the next 100 days. Over the next three months, you will write and rewrite your novel by following the simple instructions . . .

One of the unintended consequences of Peace Corps Volunteers is a library shelf of memoirs, novels, and poetry. Unlike travel writers who seek new lands to explore, and unlike anthropologists who find foreign societies puzzles to comprehend, Peace Corps Volunteers arrive, as we know, in-country with some hope that they can do some good. And many, when they come home, want to share their incomparable experiences and insights. While the Peace Corps is being defined today mostly in memoirs, it is noteworthy that early Peace Corps-inspired writings were mainly fictional. During the 1950s, two societal impulses swept across America. One impulse that characterized the decade was detailed in two best-selling books of the era: the 1955 novel by Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and the non-fiction book, The Organization Man, written by William H. Whyte and published in 1956. These books looked at the “American way . . .

by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) •     In 1961, Franklin Williams began to work at Peace Corps HQ as Chief of the Division of Private Organizations, working with CARE, the Experiment in International Living, YMCA, etc. A lawyer and a leader in civil rights cases, he was a friend of Harris Wofford who interested Williams in working for the federal government at the new agency. Years later, when I was managing the Peace Corps Recruitment Office in New York, the recruiters came up with the suggestion that we should ‘honor’ an African American RPCV who was helping us in the city to recruit ethnically diverse PCVs. I thought it would be great to give a special presentation, and name it after an early African American staffer — Franklin H. Williams — who had recently passed away. I spoke to Chuck Baquet, also an African American, a Somalia RPCV (1964-66), . . .

The awards are: The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award The Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award The Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Award for Best Peace Corps Memoir The Award for Best Book of Poetry The Award for Best Short Story Collection The Award for Best Travel Book The Rowland Scherman Award for Best Photography Book The Marian Haley Beil Award for the Best Book Review The Award for Best Children’s Book about a Peace Corps Country Submit your favorite book(s) published in 2022. Send your selection(s) to John Coyne: jcoyneone@gmail.com List what award your selection should be given. The awards will be announced in August 2023. Thank you. Publisher: Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64) Editor: John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Peace Corps Historian: Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) Book Reviewer: Dean W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76); Costa Rico (1976-77)

Peace Corps Week is Almost Here! Latest issue of WorldView is in the mail. Peace Corps Week (February 26 – March 3) is just around the corner. For many RPCVs, Peace Corps’ birthday on March 1 serves as an annual reminder to reflect and share our Peace Corps stories, send letters to the editor to your local newspapers, talk to groups about the opportunity to serve, and to engage in community-wide events. Typically, NPCA would hold its in-person advocacy day on the Hill during Peace Corps Week, but due to the Congressional calendar, this gathering will be on March 9 this year. I’m beyond excited for this first in-person NPCA event in three years, and to tune into some of the Peace Corps Week virtual events. Check below and on our calendar to sign up for these events! In addition to the event with Peace Corps Director Spahn and other offerings, . . .

  Over the last five decades Martin Puryear has created a body of work based on abstract organic forms rich with psychological, cultural, and historical references. His labor-intensive sculptures are made by hand at his studio in upstate New York. They combine practices adapted from many different traditions, including wood carving, joinery, and boat building, as well as more recent technology. By Dimitris Lempesis Photo: Matthew Marks Gallery Archive Martin Puryear (Sierra Leone 1964-66) presents a solo exhibition in Los in Los Angeles after 30 years, the exhibition includes seven sculptures made over the past five years in a variety of media including wood, bronze, and stone. “Looking Askance” (2023), is constructed from red cedar and pine and finished with an oil-based paint in silvery gray. From one side, the sculpture evokes the shape of a colossal head, a form that has appeared in the artist’s work through the decades. . . .

Wall City of Diyarbakir—my “home” province for two years, from 1965-1967, and the city of the same name where I went to buy staples every week or two, went to talk with the agriculturalists and doctors who might do something in our village. Our village, Koprubasi, was about twenty kilometers on a good gravel road from the city. We went by shared minibus called a “dol-moosh.” (Dolmak is to stuff, like stuffed peppers and tomatoes—and minibuses.) Or we hopped in a wagon pulled by a tractor. The village had maybe 50 houses; Diyarbakir over 100,000 people, and the old, walled city—five kilometers of walls built over centuries by Assyrians, Armenians, Persians, Romans, Suljuk and Ottoman Turks, and Kurds—still exists alongside a new city, Yenisehir. A fortress next to the Biblical Tigris, the point at which that river is navigable. With its neighbor, the Euphrates, cradle of the Fertile Crescent, the . . .

Here is our new list of RPCV & staff authors we know of who have published two or more books of any type. Currently—in February 2023–the count is 476. If you know of someone who has and their name is not on this list, then please email: jcoyneone@gmail.com. We know we don’t have all such writers who have served over these past 60 years. Thank you.’ Jerome R. Adams (Colombia 1963–65) Tom Adams (Togo 1974-76) Thomas “Taj” Ainlay, Jr. (Malaysia 1973–75) Elizabeth (Letts) Alalou (Morocco 1983–86) Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1962-65) Usha Alexander (Vanuatu 1996–97) James G. Alinder (Somalia 1964-66) Richard Alleman (Morocco 1968-70) Hayward Allen (Ethiopia 1962-64) Diane Demuth Allensworth (Panama 1964–66) Paul E. Allaire (Ethiopia 1964–66) Allman (Nepal 1966-68) Nancy Amidei (Nigeria 1964–65) Gary Amo (Malawi 1962–64) David C. Anderson (Costa Rica 1964-66) Lauri Anderson (Nigeria 1963-65) Peggy Anderson (Togo 1962-64) James Archambeault (Philippines 1965-67) Ron Arias . . .

  Arnold Zeitlan (Ghana 1961– 63) was a correspondent for more than 30 years, and bureau chief of  The Associated Press, assigned to West Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the Philippines. For UPI, he served as vice president and managing director of the Asia-Pacific division, based in Hong Kong. From 1998 to 2001, he served as director of the Asian Center of The Freedom Forum, a nonprofit foundation devoted to news media issues. In 2001, he founded Editorial Research and Reporting Associates, Inc., which consults news media and journalism educators primarily in Asia in support of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He has lectured and taught at Yale, Boston and Northeastern universities. Before this newspaper career, Arnold was a PCV in Ghana! • The Peace Corps was very new when you joined. Why did you join? I have few heroes but one of them was Ed Murrow. In . . .

Books that bred [and explain] the Peace Corps Apr 14 2022 By John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) During the 1950s, two social and political impulses swept across the United States. One impulse that characterized the decade was detailed in two best-selling books of the times, the 1955 novel by Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and the non-fiction The Organization Man, written by William H. Whyte and published in 1956. These books looked at the “American way of life” and how men got ahead on the job and in society. Both are bleak looks at the mores of the corporate world. These books were underscored by Ayn Rand’s philosophy as articulated in such novels as Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957. Every man, philosophized Rand, was an end in himself. He must work for rational self-interest, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. Then in 1958 came a second impulse . . .

In case you’re wondering (or want to do your Ph.D on the Peace Corps) the first books and pamphlets on the agency in the first five years came out in 1961. There were four published that year. In 1962 one play was produced; 1963 had five more books in print; 1964 six books; three in 1965. One by an RPCV.They are: 1961 An International Peace Corps: The Promise and Problems, by Samuel P. Hayes published by Public Affairs Institute. It cost $1.00 (1961) Complete Peace Corps Guide, by Ray Hoopes, with an introduction by R. Sargent Shriver published by Dial Press. It cost $3.50. (1961) New Frontiers for American Youth: Perspective on the Peace Corps by Maurice L. Albertson, Andrew E. Rice and Pauline E. Birkey published by Public Affairs Press. It cost $4.50. (1961) Peace Corps: Who, How and Where by Charles E. Wingenbach, with a foreword by Hubert H. Humphrey . . .