Peace Corps writers

Elise Annunziata (Senegal 1996-99) was nice enough to alert me to another RPCV playwright, Rajiv Joseph (Senegal 1997-2000), who had served with her.  Rajiv’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is currently running at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles, and Charles McNulty writing in a LA Times review, says, “Bengal Tiger is no ordinary play. I’m tempted to call it the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell the work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limiting category.” The play came about because Rajiv read a small (200 words) newspaper article in September 2003 about an American soldier stationed in Baghdad who reportedly killed a Bengal tiger at the local zoo after the animal maimed a colleague who was trying to feed it. “When I read the article,” Rajiv says, “I . . .

Twin Towers, a play by Damian Wampler (Kyrgyzstan 1999-01) will premiere at The Planet Connections Theater Festivity on Friday, June 12th through Sunday, June 28th for six  performances only at the Robert Moss Theater at 440 Studios, 440 Lafayette, in New York’s East Village. Set in the Bronx Twin Towers focuses on the lives of two best friends who have chosen very different life paths– Trevor and Jamal, the Twin Towers of the title, were once inseparable schoolyard buddies. Now, years later, Trevor has returned from Iraq a war hero, while Jamal has returned from years of overseas in the Peace Corps. The two clash as the fantasy of their childhood innocence fades to reveal the truth of their character. Twin Towersis a coming of age story not only for two young men but for our country as well., It incorporates music, dance, a Brazilian dance-like martial art called Capoeira, . . .

Triumph & Hope is reviewed by Bob Arias. Bob has had a long history with the Peace Corps, first as a PCV 1964-66, then at the Puerto Rico Training Center 1966-68; as an APCD in Colombia 1966-68; then Special Assistant to the Director, ACTION 1976-77, CD in Argentina-Uruguay, 1993-95, and finally as a consultant to the Peace Corps Safety and Security Office 2002-03. Triumph & Hope: Golden Years With The Peace Corps in Honduras by Barbara Joe (Honduras 2000–03) BookSurge December 2008 316 pages $18.99 Best new non-fiction finalist, National Indie Excellence Awards Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964–66) There’s more than triumph and hope going on here, this is a complete “journal” of life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Central American country of Honduras!  Barbara believes she is telling you the story of her success and failures as a senior citizen in this lush banana country, when in reality she is describing what most . . .

Before you leave for the long week end, and the long summer, here are a few books to order to take with you. All of these books were written by RPCVs. Support the Peace Corps Community and read some great books! The Italian Summer: Golf, Food, and Family at Lake Como By Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979-80) Touchstone 272 pages 2009 Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach (Non-Fiction) by Laurence Leamer (Nepal 1965-67) Hyperion Press 368 pages 2009 Hippie Chick (young adult) By Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975-77) 204 pages Front Street Press 2008 The Mind Dancing (Poems) By Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1962-64) Art and Calligraphy by Vivian Lu 76 pages Plain View Press 2009 The Disappearance (Novel) by Efrem Sigel (Ivory Coast 1965-67) Permanent Press 264 pages 2009 Triumph & Hope: Golden Years With The Peace Corps in Honduras (Memoir) Barbara Joe (Honduras . . .

Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan 20002-04) has recently had several pieces published or accepted for publication. Two poems appeared in the online journal Protestpoems.org, while a personal essay appeared in Etude: New Voices in Literary Nonfiction. [http://etude.uoregon.edu/spring2009/essay]  He has poems forthcoming in If Poetry Journal and The Los Angeles Review as well as short stories forthcoming in Eureka Literary Magazine, Cantaraville, and Arroyo Literary Review. Fearnside is managing editor of the literary journal Alligator Juniper at Prescott College , where he also teaches writing.

Jason Sanford ( Thailand 1994-96) has won the 2008 Interzone Readers Poll for his short story “When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees.” The award is voted on by readers of the British speculative fiction magazine Interzone. A second Interzone story by Jason, “The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain,” placed #4 in the Readers’ Poll and will be reprinted a few weeks from now in the anthology Year’s Best SF 14.  Interzone has also accepted a 20,000-word novella from Jason for publication later in the year. For more information check out Jason’s web site.

Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1963-65) teaches at a university in Canada and has a book coming out this month that might interest you. It is entitled, Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity. From the book jacket, “Capitalism may promise cheap, nutritious food for all, but it has failed to deliver on that promise.” The book explores the economics of our food system, and it explains why a quarter of the world’s population go hungry despite the fact that enough food is produced worldwide to feed us all. Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, says about the book, “Marx understood the dynamics of the current food crisis over a century ago. Robert Albritton has written a fine primer, bridging the best thinking of the nineteenth century to the urgent needs of the twenty-first.” And Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, author . . .

In August of 2008 Darcy Munson Meijer (Gabon 1982-84) moved to Abu Dhabi with her husband and two of her children, boys ages 7 and 8, to begin  a three-year teaching contract at Zayed University, an all-female institution. She went to work in the Academic Bridge Program that prepares the women to do university coursework full-time in English. Darcy explains the reason for this essay . . . It started at the annual party hosted by one of my fellow Gabon RPCVs in St. Croix last summer — this desire to set people straight about life in Abu Dhabi. While my friends were sharing stories and gossip in the corps de garde, conversation turned to the birqa that I would surely have to wear in the United Arab Emirates, where we to move shortly. You may already know that the surest way to get an American’s knickers in a wad is . . .

 The Choosing America Project is looking for true short stories that express the “very essence of being an immigrant in America.” They are looking for “gripping human interest stories that will  reflect the diversity of the American immigrant experience, past and  present.” Do you have a story to tell? Go to  www.choosingamerica.com . If you don’t have a story, then pass this request onto someone you know. They are trying to disseminate this information to as many immigrants as possible in search of the best material. Forward this to other writers, editors, students,  professors, educators, seniors, colleagues and friends, community  leaders and organizers as well as to community groups and  organizations, anyone you believe who can contribute to this  project. Many thanks.

Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979-80) has written a number of fine novels (Leaving Losapas, his Peace Corps novel), and since then novels on a wide range of topics, including golf (Golfing with God: A Novel of Heaven and Earth.) He is back with a new one, this on golf, travel, Italy and a lot more: The Italian Summer. Last year Roland took a long summer vacation with his wife and two daughters in northern Italy. Of the trip, Roland writes in his introduction, “Just the story of a slice of time in a beautiful place, where I had a lesson in living more slowly.” (Hey, Roland, you spent two years in Micronesia! Could anything possibly move slower than those islands?) There is a lot in this book, from writing about golf to long and leisurely dinners. You can get a great meal out of these beautifully written pages. Touchstone Books published The Italian Summer this spring. As they . . .

Michael Levy (China 2005-07) joins the expanding ‘China Gang’ of writers (Mike Meyer, Peter Hessler, and all) with a humorous memoir of serving in rural China. His account of being far from the high-rises of Beijing and his discovery of a Chinese adoration–and often–of all things Jewish, has just been sold to Holt. The memoir is entitled, Kosher Dog Meat. Holt has published a number of RPCVs, including Sarah Erdman’s Nine Hills To Nambonkaha(Ivory Coast 1998-2000); Maureen Orth’s (Colombia 1964-66) The Importance of Being Famous; and Thurston Clarke (Tunisia 1968) The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America.

In his review  in the San Antonio Express, Roberto Bonazzi writes of Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1962–64) new collection of poems, The Mind Dancing: “These poems about China make it clear that he [Zurio] is neither Western-centric nor egocentric, and that he has remained open to the ancient wisdom of the East.” Tony’s first  poem is  “Dao: The Elusive One” who “consumes scholars / in missions of the mind, / convinced they can analyze / and split it like an atom, / attracts philosophers / like gravity, confident / they will tame it with syllogisms and logic, / lures pilgrims to mountain tops, / guided by monks who promise / paradise to all who yield / to the scripture of bliss.” Not all of the poems are brief Zen-like lyrics; there are also longer discursive poems with witty turns and several love poems for his Chinese wife, artist Vivian Lu, who provides a . . .

Ellen R. Sheeley was an early business PCV in Western Samoa from 1983 to 1985. Finishing her tour, she traveled home very slowly, circling the globe. Years later as a successful businesswoman, she happened to watch a television newscast that impassioned her. Ellen was kind enough to grant an electronic interview about her book Reclaiming Honor in Jordan: A National Public Opinion Survey On “Honor” Killings. She was interviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) a  city planner who publishes books (travel & poetry)  as a hobby. [Larry:] What is an honor killing? [Ellen:] “Honor” killing is the murder of family for actual or perceived immoral sexual behavior. It is a misguided attempt to restore family honor. Immoral behavior could be rape (in which case the rape victim is murdered), extramarital or premarital intercourse, or even flirtation. “Honor” killing is believed to have its origins in misinterpretations of pre-Islamic Arab . . .

The Disappearance by RPCV Efrem Sigel came out several months ago from The Permanent Press, a company that had published a number of fine Peace Corps books. It is reviewed here by Leita Kaldi Davis who worked with Roma (Gypsies) for fifteen years before she became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal. The Disappearance by Efrem Sigel (Ivory Coast 1965–67) Permanent Press February 2009 264 pages $28.00 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) Joshua and Nathalie Sandler’s 14-year old son, Daniel, disappears one day from their summer home in a quiet New England town where Joshua is involved in the development of an upscale resort that earns him enemies among local citizens who view them as New York outsiders.  Anonymous threats result in the poisoning of Joshua’s partner’s dog and Joshua, sensing the town’s secrets and mysteries, suspects that his son’s disappearance might be a similar sinister warning.  What he . . .