Peace Corps writers – Peace Corps Worldwide

THE SHOWGIRL AND THE WRITER by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador)

Dec 04 2023

Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues, My latest book, The Showgirl and the Writer: A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration was published in July of this year by Peace Corps Writers, an Imprint of Peace Corps Worldwide. I am grateful to many of you who have read, reviewed, and referred the book to potential readers. For others, The Showgirl and the Writer is a hybrid memoir/biography about my long friendship with Mary Mon Toy, a Nisei performer who had been forcibly removed from her home to an American concentration camp in Idaho during WWII. Our underlying bond was the incarceration of Japanese Americans; I was born in the Tule Lake Japanese American high security camp in California where my Caucasian parents had volunteered to work. This book has been a labor of love, a personal and political journey. When I learned upon Mary’s death in 2010 that she had been keeping . . .

THE LENGTHENING SHADOW OF SLAVERY by John E. Fleming (Malawi)

Nov 25 2023

Because Black students continue to face significant academic and financial challenges in their attempt to receive higher education in America, their home country, Dr. John Fleming felt that there was a pressing need to re-publish the 1976 edition of his book, The Lengthening Shadow of Slavery: A Historical Justification for Affirmative Action for Blacks in Higher Education with a new 2023 edition entitled The Lengthening Shadow of Slavery: Fifty-Year Reprise of the Historical Justification for Affirmative Action for African Americans in U.S. Higher Education. Dr. Fleming strongly felt that it was necessary to explore, yet again, why the U.S.’s own African-American students receive the worst educational outcomes at all levels of the American education pipeline while foreign students who major in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields at U.S. colleges and universities get the best education money can buy. On the face of it this is not an easy question to answer; but . . .

“Punching at Destiny” by Michael Varga (Chad)

Nov 17 2023

Punching at Destiny The Uneven Path Forward Michael Varga (Chad 1977-79) U.S. Foreign Service, retired • I was a sophomore in high school, I was cast in a production of the musical play Guys & Dolls. I was Gambler #3, and I had only one line to deliver. During a game of craps, I was supposed to get into a tussle with Gambler #6, yell “You cheated!”and slug him. When we rehearsed the play, I was confident I could make it look like my fist was making contact with his face. The director had said that I was supposed to swing my arm as if to hit his face, but position my back so that the audience wouldn’t see my hand sliding just beyond his right cheek. But on opening night, full of adrenaline, stimulated by the sounds of the audience reacting with oohs and aahs, when it came time . . .

GAELS ON THREE by Don Schlenger (Ethiopia)

Nov 04 2023

Gaels On Three by Don Schlenger (Ethiopia 1966-68) Ink Start Media Publisher September 2023 318 pages $2.99 (Kindle); $13.99 (Paperback) It’s the eighties in north Jersey with big hair and bad music, and a love story set around a Catholic junior high school girls’ basketball team. Will and Ramona were childhood sweethearts and neighbors from age four, who tragically broke up weeks before high school graduation in 1976. Will went right into the army, Ramona to college on a basketball scholarship. Six years later, with no interim contact, Will calls Ramona and asks if she will help him coach the girls’ basketball team at St. Ethel of the Holy Oasis Junior High School, close by where they grew up. They negotiate, they bicker, use bad language, argue, and finally she agrees. With conditions: a sixpack of Schaefers and a box of Mrs. T’s on demand. Supporting them are . . .

THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE by Clifford Garstang (Korea)

Nov 02 2023

The Last Bird of Paradise Black Rose Writing Clifford Garstang (South Korea 1976-77) February 2024 340 pages $6.99 (Kindle); $23.95 (Paperback). Can be pre-ordered. Two women, nearly a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives when they reluctantly leave their homelands. Arriving in Singapore, they find romance in a tropical paradise, but also find they haven’t left behind the dangers that caused them to flee. In the aftermath of 9/11 and haunted by the specter of terrorism, Aislinn Givens leaves her New York law practice and joins her husband in Southeast Asia when he takes a job there. Seeking to establish herself in a local law firm, Aislinn begins to understand the historic resentment of foreigners who have exploited the region for centuries. Learning about the turmoil of Singapore’s colonial period, she acquires several paintings done by an English artist during World War I that she believes are . . .

Playwright Tom David Barna (Burkina Faso)

Oct 18 2023

The Minnesota Playwright Born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania-USA, Tom David Barna is a graduate of Kaiserslautern American High School in Germany and New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico-USA. A a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso (1979-80) and a retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Russia. Tom’s father, Thomas Barna was the first family member born in the United States and buried at Arlington National Cemetery having served in the Korean Conflict and the Viet Nam War. Tom David Barna, playwright, has penned more than forty-two full length plays, forty-nine short plays, co-author for a 13-part radio series and author of four children’s books (Cantata Publishing) and several eBooks (Rakuten Kobo Publishing). He has been commissioned for projects as varied as episodic radio and children’s musicals and recently collaborated on a new full-length musical with Melody Bay Productions/Publisher, a . . .

SOCRATES IN SICHUAN by Peter Vernezze (China)

Oct 15 2023

Socrates in Sichuan: Chinese Students Search for Truth, Justice, and the (Chinese) Way Peter J. Vernezze (China 2006-08) Potomac Books April 2011 212 pages $10.01 (Kindle); $9.49 (Hardback) When Peter J. Vernezze took a leave of absence from his position as a philosophy professor to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in China, he supplemented his main task―teaching English―with leading a weekly philosophical discussion group with Chinese undergraduate and graduate students at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu. In each session the students debated topics as diverse as the status of truth, the meaning of life, the reality of fate, the definition of sanity, the necessity of religion, and the value of romantic love. Each of the twenty-five chapters of Socrates in Sichuan focuses on the topic of one evening’s discussion, which was always in the form of a question: How are ancient conceptions of virtue holding up in . . .

“Improbably Grateful” by Michael Varga (Chad)

Oct 09 2023

In the news — Improbably Grateful by Michael Varga (Chad 1977-79) ’85 M.A. Notre Dame Magazine In 1995 the doctors told me I would probably be dead of AIDS by April 1997. I had retired early from the U.S. Foreign Service, and AIDS patients were dying rapidly. There was no effective treatment for AIDS or HIV. It was a grim time, and I had no reason to think I would be any different than the hordes of patients who had already succumbed, who were deprived of a normal life span and the opportunity to grow old. I imagined some fairy-tale scene where my friends would gather around my deathbed as I took my last breath. Spurred by that image, I told my friends to come to visit “before it was too late.” I pressed them to understand the urgency of my situation and said I needed their support in . . .

THE COUSCOUS CHRONICLES by Azzedine T. Downes (Morocco

Oct 05 2023

The Couscious Chronicles: Stories of Food, Love, and Donkeys from a Life Between Cultures by Azzedine T. Downes (Morocco 1981-85) (PC Staff 1991-95) Disruption Books 328 pages June 2023 $12.99 (Kindle); $18.02 (Paperback) Azzedine Downes moves between cultures, places, and time in this wryly comedic, at times mysterious, and always curious memoir of a lifelong nomad. The best strategy was to drink tea, smile, and enjoy the frustration of not knowing where the story leads. If time is endless, why rush to the point of a story? Now an international leader in the fight for animal welfare, Azzedine began his career as a volunteer teacher and later was appointed to leadership in the U.S. Peace Corps. An American Muslim with Irish roots, he’s a natural cultural shape-shifter, immersing himself in the cultures of Morocco, Eastern Europe, Northwest Africa, Israel and his native United States. Along the way he befriends . . .

WHAT’S GOTTEN INTO YOU by Dan Levitt (Kenya)

Oct 03 2023

What’s Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body’s Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night’s Dinner by Dan Levitt (Kenya 1981-83) Harper Publisher January 2023 400 pages $12.99 (Kindle); $5.95 (Audiobook) $15.99 (Hardcover); $21.99 (Paperback) For readers of Bill Bryson, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Siddhartha Mukherjee, a wondrous, wildly ambitious, and vastly entertaining work of popular science that tells the awe-inspiring story of the elements that make up the human body, and how these building blocks of life travelled billions of miles and across billions of years to make us who we are. Every one of us contains a billion times more atoms than all the grains of sand in the earth’s deserts. If you weigh 150 pounds, you’ve got enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to forge a . . .

Ron Singer (Nigeria) reads from NORMAN’S COUSIN & OTHER WRITINGS in NYC

Sep 15 2023

Jefferson Market Library 425 6th Avenue, NY,NY Saturday, September 30, 3pm Ron will be reading from his latest novel Norman’s Cousin & Other Writings (Unsolicited Press, Portland, OR, June 2023). The engine for this selection of writings from Brooklyn and Manhattan (1974-the present) is story-telling, but beneath the plots lurk layers of madness and magic, as well as startling, genre-busting juxtapositions. For example, two related stories, “Buying a Car” and “Selling a Car,” are N.Y. City picaresques combined with technical automotive detail and the history of a marriage. Written almost three decades apart, these two stories mirror their times, from the 1970s recession to the wave of immigration that was a by-product of the war in Afghanistan Norman’s Cousin & Other Writings is full of allusions to literature and the other arts. “Simple” takes its title from Langston Hughes, and alludes to the history of rhythm-and-blues. “Carla, the Copy-Shop Girl,” . . .

“Teaching in Ethiopia” by Tom Weck

Sep 13 2023

by Tom Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67) After graduating from Stanford University, I felt compelled to give back something to those who were less fortunate than I. I joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in Ethiopia in a solo posting in the tiny village of Haik teaching English, math and science to 7th and 8th graders. I taught every period of every day (I got to teach Science as well – as a bonus) to about 25 students in each class and thoroughly enjoyed them. All were eager, if not desperate, to learn as they knew that a good education was their ONLY path out of a life of abject poverty (at the time Ethiopia was the second poorest country in the world). Memorization The standard approach to teaching throughout the country was rote memorization. The teacher wrote out an English sentence or math problem on the blackboard, . . .

FINDING MISS FONG by James A. Wolter (Malaya)

Sep 12 2023

Finding Miss Fong by James A. Wolter (Malaya 1961-63) Atmosphere Press 382 pages November 2023 (pre-order available) $ 18.99 (Paperback) Set against the vibrant backdrop of the 1960s in Malaya, now known as peninsular Malaysia, Finding Miss Fong is the journey of Jim Wolter, a character pulsating with life-changing aspirations and determination. The novel begins with Wolter abandoning medical school and the insistent matrimonial arrangements by his mother, who wishes for him to marry Lolly. Instead, Wolter’s soul yearns for an adventure that promises to be fulfilling, a journey where he can make a tangible impact by teaching biology in the remote areas of Malaya. However, his high expectations are met with a harsh reality. Wolter’s noble pursuit is thwarted by his unscrupulous boss, pushing him to the brink of despair and driving him to contemplate a return to Chicago. But Malaya has other plans for Wolter. Enter Miss Fong . . .

SECRETS FROM MY TRAVEL DIARIES by Stacey L. Abella (Nicaragua)

Sep 09 2023

Secrets From My Travel Diaries by Stacey L. Abella (Nicaragua 2001-03) Game Changer Publishing 321 pages May 2023 $9.92 (Kindle) $16.97 (Paperback), $9.99 (Kindle), $24.97 (hardcover) Secrets From My Travel Diaries will transport you back to 1997, when the author, as a college student, ventured from a small Ohio town to study and live in Germany and France, eventually traveling to more than ten countries. Her diaries, written on train rides and after late-night adventures at the disco, helped her clarify her thoughts and feelings at a pivotal time in her life. Years later, after leaving her corporate career, the author rediscovered these dust-laden diaries. They reconnected her to a time of unprecedented freedom when navigating your way required paper maps, constant currency conversions, and finding truth within herself. Secrets From My Travel Diaries will take you on a journey to reawaken your Adventurer within, shift your perspective, and inspire . . .

Solving the Climate Crisis by Palmer Owyoung (Namibia)

Aug 18 2023

Solving the Climate Crisis: A Community Guide to Solving the Biggest Problem On the Planet by Palmer Owyoung (Namibia 1993-95) Self published August 2023 $3.99 (Kindle) Solving the Climate Crisis is an easy to read, solutions-based book that offers actionable advice that readers can take to create lasting changes in their communities. The book is filled with hope that by working together, we can build a sustainable future by using science, and evidence-based solutions to reimagine our economic, political, and social systems, to stabilize the climate and restore biodiversity. We hear about it on the news every day, but climate change can be confusing. Are we doomed? How did we get here? What can I do about it? These are some questions you have probably asked yourself. In Solving the Climate Crisis, Palmer Owyoung deconstructs climate change to understand how we got here, and looks at how we can . . .