Author Interviews – Peace Corps Worldwide

BACKYARD RACE HORSE by Janet Del Castillo (Colombia)

Jun 06 2024

Backyard Race Horse by Janet Del Castillo (Colombia 1964-66) Prediction Publication 520 pages April 2013 $40.00 (Paperback) From training horses at the farm to hauling livestock and equipment to the race track, this hands-on manual covers everything a competent horse owner needs to know to get involved in horse racing. Extensive discussions examine how to exercise horses, keep a horse sound, and prepare for the race. Specifics on monitoring horses’ legs, dispensing medication, and track personnel round out this in-depth manual. Included is a directory of thoroughbred racetracks and organizations. • • • Still practicing the Peace Corps Interviewed by Thomas R. Oldt Amidst our dreadful political morass, when we can’t even seem to agree on what it means to be an American, the whole notion of idealism is seen by many as naïve if not downright suspect. That is one of the many . . .

DARE TO SURVIVE: Hell has no fury like a woman conned by Carolyn V. Hamilton (Suriname)

Apr 10 2024

RPCVs in the news — Interview with author — Newschannel/Nebraska April 9, 2024 FINALIST IN INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS CONTEST Dare to Survive, based on a true story of a woman conned and imprisoned in South America for drug trafficking recognized for its outstanding writing, design and overall market appeal out of thousands of books submitted into the Book Excellence Awards. • • • Carolyn V. Hamilton (Suriname 1999-01) is a multiple award-winning author, artist, workshop leader & success coach for memoir writers. As the author of over 20 books, Carolyn’s writing spans multiple genres including thriller, true crime, writing, editing, art, and more. For her literary prowess, she has been recognized with numerous international literary awards including two Readers’ Favorite Book Awards and a Book Excellence Award. A multi-faceted talent, Carolyn spent 30+ years in the real world of “Mad Men” as a graphic designer, copywriter and marketing executive. A graduate . . .

Talking With P.F. Kluge (Micronesia)

Mar 29 2024

When P.F. Kluge (Micronesia 1967-69) finished his Ph.D. he wasn’t sure what would come next. Then, one of his professors at the University of Chicago suggested the Peace Corps. He applied and dreamed of exotic locations, perhaps in North Africa. But he was assigned to Micronesia, a collection of 2,100 tiny islands in the northern Pacific. That assignment turned out to be a life-defining adventure. It was his Walden Pond. About Kluge’s New Book WORDMAN is Kluge’s 14th book, his fourth book of nonfiction. According to Kluge it is his most personal book, a memoir told largely through published materials that demonstrate, in real-time, how his career developed. There were lucky accidents, like his Peace Corps assignment to Micronesia, which came to influence his fiction as well as his nonfiction. In Wordman Kluge offers a behind-the-scenes look at how his books happen, where the ideas come from, what he . . .

Talking With Children’s Book Award Winning Writer Cristina Kessler

Mar 25 2024

John interviews . . . Cristina Kessler Cristina Kessler is an award-winning author of nine books set in Africa, where she lived for 19 years. She’s received the 2015 Lumen Award, given for “excellence in nonfiction for young readers” with Hope is Here!; She’s received the Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award from the ASPCA for Excellence in Humane Literature for Young Readers; the Africana Book Award, from the African Studies Association, honoring outstanding books about Africa for children and young adults; and has been included many times on the Notable Books for a Global Society list. She writes about nature and cross-cultural topics. I asked Cristina what she did before the Peace Corps. I graduated from California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo, CA in 1972. I majored in Criminology and minored in Political Science. My first job upon graduating was working as a mushroom sorter in the Santa Cruz . . .

An interview with North Africa Folklorist Deborah Kapchan (Morocco)

Dec 11 2023

RPCVs in the news — Deborah Kapchan is an American folklorist, writer, translator and ethnographer, specializing in North Africa and its diaspora in Europe. In 2000, Kapchan became a Gugenheim fellow. She has been a Fulbright-Hays recipient twice, and is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. She is professor of Performance Studies at New York University, and the former director of the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology (now the Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies) at the University of Texas at Austin. After completing her Bachelors of Arts in English Literature and French at New York University while studying flute performance with Harold Jones in New York, Kapchan went to Morocco in 1982 as a Peace Corps Volunteer. There she learned Moroccan Arabic, and in 1984 got a job doing ethnography in Marrakech and in El Ksiba, Morocco. This experience reoriented her life and in 1985 . . .

An Interview with James A. Wolter (Malaysia), author of FINDING MISS FONG

Nov 16 2023

In the news — Feathered Quill reviewer Barbara Bamberger Scott is talking with James A. Wolter (Malaysia 1962-66), author of Finding Miss Fong. • FQ: How long did it take to write this book? While a memoir at heart, I can imagine that there still must have been a lot of fact-gathering. WOLTER: Finding Miss Fong has been percolating in my mind for 60 years. Before my best Peace Corps friend, Bob Hoyle, unexpectedly died in October 2021, he told me I had no more time and to get writing. I started writing immediately as if I were talking to Bob directly, and I couldn’t stop. I finished writing my story by August 2022. The stories just flowed. I could see them in my mind. I was 22 years old again and in Malaysia. It was as if I were watching a movie of my life. I didn’t have to . . .

Talking with Marnie Mueller (Ecuador) about her new book THE SHOWGIRL AND THE WRITER

Aug 27 2023

PCW: The Showgirl And The Writer is an unusual book about an unusual friendship. What initially drew you to your subject? Marnie: For fifteen years I was friends with Mary Mon Toy, a Japanese American showgirl who had been incarcerated in an America concentration camp during World War II. Our bond was the fact that I, though Caucasian, was born in the Tule Lake Japanese American High Security Camp in northern California, where my parents, young leftists, had gone to work . . . much as I joined the Peace Corps decades later, As Mary aged, I became her Power of Attorney and, when she died, the Executor of her estate, and it was only upon her death that I learned that during her entire theater career, after being released from camp, she had passed as Chinese American. She had often regaled me with the story of her Chinese father, though she did . . .

U of Illinois Graduate Ajai Rajeev begins life after college with Peace Corps service

Jan 26 2023

The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Aerospace Engineering 1/24/2023 by Debra Levey Larson Ajai Rajeev, BS ’22 Ajai Rajeev (Morocco 2022-24) received his B.S. in ’22 with a major in aerospace engineering and a minor in political science. After graduating, he decided to join the Peace Corps, and is currently serving in Morocco for two years. Learn more about his experiences in Morocco, what he enjoyed while at Illinois, and his plans for the future. • AE: What influenced your decision to join the Peace Corps? AR: When I first entered UIUC, I fully intended to work in the space sector, and I still do, but in a different capacity than what I originally intended after using my time in undergraduate studies to fully understand my best skills and my interests. I want to go into law for the space sector. I felt that going to the Peace . . .

BRIGHTEST SUN by Adrienne Benson (Nepal)

Jun 25 2022

An illuminating debut novel following three women in sub-Saharan Africa as they search for home and family Leona, an isolated American anthropologist, gives birth to a baby girl in a remote Maasai village and must decide how she can be a mother, in spite of her own grim childhood. Jane, a lonely expat wife, follows her husband to the tropics and learns just how fragile life is. Simi, a barren Maasai woman, must confront her infertility in a society in which females are valued by their reproductive roles. In this affecting debut novel, these three very different women grapple with motherhood, recalibrate their identities and confront unforeseen tragedies and triumphs. In beautiful, evocative prose, Adrienne Benson brings to life the striking Kenyan terrain as these women’s lives intertwine in unexpected ways. As they face their own challenges and heartbreaks, they find strength traversing the arid landscapes of tenuous human . . .

Talking with Tim Suchsland (Kazakhstan)

Jun 02 2022

Where and when did you serve in the Peace Corps, and what was your Peace Corp project assignment? Kazakhstan, 2007-09 — I was a TEFL teacher in a village near the Russian border called Yavlenka. Tell us about where you lived and worked. Yavlenka is in northern Kazakhstan about 50 miles from the Russian border and 1.5 hours from a city called Petropavl. The village was a regional center so it had quite a bit of activity and business for rural Kazakhstan. It was also a big agricultural area so lots of farming in the area. The landscape was fairly flat where the Kazakh steppe met the West Siberian Plains. I lived with host families my entire time in the PC. During training, I lived with a Kazakh family. My first year in Yavlenka I also lived with a Kazakh family of 5. In my last year, I lived with . . .

Talking with Glenn Ivers (Liberia)

May 30 2022

An interview with Glenn H. Ivers (Liberia 1974-76), author of ANGELS OF BASTOGNE Glenn, what is Angels of Bastogne about? This is a story from World War II. The main characters are Jack Prior, a U.S. Army doctor, and two heroic Belgian nurses who volunteered to serve in his aid station in Bastogne, Belgium in December 1944, during a German offensive, the “Battle of the Bulge.” The aid station was short-staffed, under-equipped, and unsuitable for the tidal wave of wounded they faced, yet with grit and great compassion they persevered. What is the genre of the book? It has been described as historical fiction by a prominent Upstate New York historian, who generally “avoids books of this type,” but who nonetheless claimed he could not put the book down once he started reading it. I think of it as narrative nonfiction because it is a true story with an . . .

Christine Herbert (Zambia) answers questions on Operation Awesome

Feb 25 2022

Would you please, in 160 characters or less, give a #WriteTip ? Don’t wait for the “perfect idea” to arrive before writing. Just get those fingers on the keyboard. The ideas will come. What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader? Above all, I want the readers to laugh. Hard. In my face. (Okay, not literally. Please don’t show up at my door, point to a page in my book and guffaw. That would be weird.) Because my book deals with a challenging time in my life—namely living in a mud hut in the middle of Africa by myself—there’s going to be a lot of emotions flying around. There are some truly soul crushing moments in there; I’m not going to lie. But mostly I wrote the book as a way to laugh at myself, and I hope the reader will too. What is . . .

Talking With Lawrence Grobel (Ghana)

Feb 08 2022

Lawrence Grobel (Ghana 1968-71) has written 31 books and for numerous national magazines and newspapers. Playboy called him “the Interviewer’s Interviewer” after his interview with Marlon Brando for their 25th-anniversary issue. He created the MFA in Professional Writing program for Antioch University in 1977 and in 1985 his book Conversations with Capote received a PEN Special Achievement award and reached the top of several bestseller lists. He is married to artist and textile designer Hiromi Oda and they have two daughters, Maya and Hana. His blog, books, and articles can be found on his website: www.lawrencegrobel.com. We interviewed Larry in connection with his new memoir — Turquoise — of his Peace Corps years in Ghana. • Larry, why the Peace Corps? When I turned 21 in February 1968, I had to start thinking seriously about my future, and whether I’d have one. The Vietnam War was raging, with over a half-million . . .

Tom Bissell (Uzbekistan) Speaks With Literary Hub’s Jane Ciabattari

Dec 16 2021

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) LITERARY HUB The Author of Creative Types Speaks With Jane Ciabattari By Jane Ciabattari December 14, 2021 Tom Bissell (Uzbekistan 1996–97) has built a career on being a master of the literary pivot. He has written eight books of nonfiction (including The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam, in which he and his veteran father return to Vietnam together, and The Disaster Artist, co-authored with Greg Sestero), countless features, essays and cultural criticism for magazines like Esquire, The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic; video games (Gears of War: Judgment, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Battlefield Hardline), books about video games (Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, The Art and Design of Gears of War), and the 2021 TV series, The Mosquito Coast, based on the Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963–65) novel. Talk about versatility. But he is, at his core, . . .

RPCV Brother Guy Consolmagno (Kenya), Director of Vatican Observatory

Nov 23 2021

Brother Guy Consolmagno is the co-authored two astronomy books: Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope – and How to Find Them (with Dan M. Davis; Cambridge University Press, 1989) and Worlds Apart: A Textbook in Planetary Sciences (with Martha W. Schaefer; Prentice Hall, 1993). He is the author or co-author of four books exploring faith and science issues, including The Way to the Dwelling of Light (U of Notre Dame Press, 1998); Brother Astronomer (McGraw Hill, 2000); God’s Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion (Jossey-Bass, 2007), and Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? (With Paul Mueller, Image, 2014). He also edited The Heavens Proclaim (Vatican Observatory Publications, 2009). Since 2004 he has written a monthly column on astronomy for the British Catholic periodical, The Tablet. Brother Guy Consolmagno (Kenya 1983-85) is the director of the Vatican Observatory, and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. . . .