To order books published by Peace Corps Writers from Amazon.com, click on the book cover, the bold book title, or the format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance that helps support our awards.
2019
Not Exactly Retired: A Life-Changing Journey on the Road and in the Peace Corps
David Jarmul (Nepal 1977–79; Moldova 2016–18)
Peace Corps Writers
April 2019
300 pages
$15.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle)
PEACE CORPS FELT like a faint memory to David Jarmul, who served in Nepal in his twenties and returned home to pursue a career and raise a family. Then he and his wife, Champa, veered from their conventional American lives to wander around Nepal and the United States and serve as Peace Corps Volunteers in Moldova. Readers in more than 100 countries followed their journey on David’s blog. Not Exactly Retired is a book for anyone seeking inspiration about how they, too, might pursue adventure, serve others, and redefine themselves for the next phase of their lives. RPCV Marco Werman of The World on public radio says David “teases out a striking contrast between his service in Nepal 35 years ago and in Moldova in the age of Trump.” Kevin F. F. Quigley, former president of the National Peace Corps Association, says “the poignant vignettes throughout this remarkably readable book demonstrate that you can serve again after you have ‘retired’ from a rewarding career.” Debbie and Michael Campbell, The Senior Nomads, say “David’s storytelling is engaging and will inspire you to find your own North Star.”
Eradicating Smallpox in Ethiopia: Peace Corps Volunteers’ Accounts of Their Adventures, Challenges and Achievements
Editors: Gene L. Bartley (Ethiopia 1970–72, 1974–76), John Scott Porterfield (Ethiopia 1971–73), Alan Schnur (Ethiopia 1971–74), James W. Skelton, Jr. (Ethiopia 1970–72)
Peace Corps Writers
486 pages; 69 photographs
November 26, 2019
$ 19.95 (paperback)
“THIS BOOK IS AN important addition to the historical record about the first human disease to be eradicated.” Dr. D.A. Henderson, Director of the World Health Organization’s Global Smallpox Eradication Program, 1966-77.” “This book serves up large dollops of nostalgia, humor, delightful tales of daring, and loads of information about fighting infectious diseases that – as it turns out in these times of the coronavirus – makes the book very contemporary.”
Barry Hillenbrand, former Time magazine correspondent “Eradicating Smallpox in Ethiopia” is a fascinating book that contains a treasure trove of amazing stories written by Peace Corps Volunteers who worked in the Smallpox Eradication Program in Ethiopia in the early 1970s. “These guys were what we ordinary Peace Corps Volunteers called ‘real Peace Corps.’ Peace Corps staff called them ‘super Vols.’ And they were. The stories in this book provide more proof of the crucial role played by PCVs in the eradication of smallpox in Ethiopia.” Jock Copland, WHO Administrator of the Global Smallpox Eradication Program, 1966-77.
What were those PCVs experiencing and enduring in extremely challenging living and working conditions when Ethiopia was reporting more smallpox cases than any other country in the world? Purchase this book today and find out!
Woven: A Peace Corps Adventure Spun with Faith, Laughter, and Love
Nancy Heil Knor (Belize 1989–91)
Peace Corps Writers
November 2019
322 pages
$12.95 (paperback), $4.75 (Kindle)
Through intimate first-person accounts, Woven invites you to accompany Nancy on her pilgrimage into the jungles of Belize, where she will introduce you to the beautiful Mayan families she comes to love. Through Nancy’s reflections, you will breathe in the captivating beauty of the K’ekchi Maya culture, face the loneliness caused by separation from loved ones, and witness the building of the village’s first-ever library. Journey with her as she struggles to maintain her former relationships — especially with her college sweetheart, Dan Wagner — and watch as God gently “untangles” an ordinary girl and weaves for her an extraordinary tale of adventure, romance, and true friendship.
Strange Beauty of the World:Poems
Bill Preston (Thailand 1977–80)
August 2019
148 pages
$12.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle)
The poems in Strange Beauty of the World invite readers to reflect on the ways the past impinges on the present, how events long ago continue to inform who we are now; to consider acts taken and not taken, and the way actions have unintended consequences; to bear witness to cruelty and injustice; to summon the creative imagination to resist the mundane, challenge the rehearsed response.
The Price of Freedom
Martin R. Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68)
Peace Corps Writers
July 2019
370 pages
$14.95 (paperback)
The Price of Freedom is the sixth and final book in my series of novels on the American Revolution. It covers the period from the aftermath of the victory at Yorktown in October 1781 to the return to life in peacetime New York City in early 1784, following the British evacuation in November 1783.
My characters are involved in the significant historic events of those two years, including the mutiny of Continental Army Officers at Newburgh, New York, the liberation of New York City, the disbanding of the Continental Army, and the evacuation of freed slaves by the British from New York.
The novel explores the fortitude of ordinary soldiers in enduring the daily reality of limited rations, lack of clothing and pay, the horrific brutality of imprisonment by the British, and the panic among Loyalists and newly freed African Americans, fearful of what will happen to them when the Patriots take control of New York City.
The Biloxi Connection
David J. Mather
Peace Corps Writers
June 2019
387 pages
$14.95 (paperback), $8.99 (Kindle)
Retired state trooper Rusty McMillan is doubly guilt-ridden in that he didn’t prevent his best friend’s murder and only months later he is sleeping with Crystal, his best friend’s widow and the only way his and Crystal’s relationship can survive is if he can put the guilt behind him: he has to find the killer.
With Kennedy in the Land of the Dead: A Novel of the 1960s
William Siegel (Ethiopia 1962–64)
Peace Corps Writers
January 2019
315 pages
$20.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle)
After the death of President Kennedy, Gilbert Stone, a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in Ethiopia moves to San Francisco where he is caught up in the hippie movement and anti-Vietnam war protests during the 1960s.