Peace Corps writers – Page 28 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Summer Books From Two Fine RPCV Writers

Apr 01 2015

Karl Luntta (Botswana 1978-80) A swimming pool in the Kalahari Desert, the ice skates of a boy in a wheelchair, and a midnight train ride in the cool African night form the backdrop of the eight diverse stories in Swimming. Some of the stories take place in Africa, others in the United States, but in all of them, the characters confront cultural and racial differences, both historically and in the present. In “A Virgin Twice,” an American teaching in Botswana struggles to understand a village’s response to a violent assault. In “Jeff Call Beth,” a white American father attempts to connect with the daughter he left behind in Africa. And in the title story, “Swimming,” a Danish expatriate dying of cancer decides to build an Olympic-sized swimming pool in the Kalahari Desert. All of these characters are clinging to emotional survival in a complex world, confronted by a moment or element . . .

The Peace Corps Poetry Contest

Mar 31 2015

In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, Peace Corps announces its first annual poetry contest, to run from April 1-30.All current and returned Volunteers are invited to submit poems for consideration by April 30. Submission requirements:* Up to three original works of written poetry that highlight one’s volunteer experience and promotes the Third Goal of Peace Corps.* Poems must be less than 300 words and free of inappropriate content or copyrighted material. * Poems must be written primarily in English, with footnotes explaining non-English words. Poems will be reviewed by a panel of judges and the winners will be announced in May. Visit our website for more information and submission guidance. Prizes:1st place: Winning poems will be printed on a custom poster that will be distributed to the winners and will be proudly displayed at Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C and regional offices across the United States. Winners . . .

Peace Corps Connect/Berkeley early-bird registration

Mar 30 2015

From the NPCA: Early bird registration for Peace Corps Connect/Berkeley ends tomorrow! Join us June 5-6, 2015 for this annual event showcasing our community’s lifelong commitment to Peace Corps ideals. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and other prominent leaders among the Peace Corps community. Click the link on this page to see the full program. You will be inspired and motivated. Peace Corps Connect/Berkeley will provide an opportunity for you to engage with your fellow RPCVs and former Peace Corps staff who share the formative foundation of the Peace Corps experience. . Peace Corps Writers at Peace Corps Connect/Berkeley Peace Corps Writers will present two programs during PC Connect. 1) Noted writer John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) will talk about writing your Peace Corps memoir, and editor and book designer Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962–64) will discuss preparing your manuscript for publishing. 2) There . . .

Mike Meyer (China 1995-97) Speaking in Washington, D.C. Monday, March 30th

Mar 27 2015

IN MANCHURIA: DOCUMENTING A CHANGING CHINA EVENT | MARCH 30, 2015 New American Fellows In Manchuria: Documenting a Changing China Monday, March 30, 2015 12:15 PM – 01:45 PM 1899 L Street NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20036 RSVP Amidst news of the globalization and booming populations in China, the story of the country’s rampant development and fast-paced change often centers on the evolution of its cities. But that’s only part of the story. Nearly half of China’s massive population-about 700 million people-still resides in rural areas, and life in the village has not been insulated from the seismic shifts reverberating from the urban centers. In his new book In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China, author Michael Meyer chronicles three years he spent in a small rice-growing town in China’s legendary northeast territory. And the saga he tells is one that mirrors drastic change sweeping through many . . .

Gerald Karey writes: Death of a Politician

Mar 25 2015

A Writer Writes — Death of a Politician by Gerald Karey (Turkey 1965–67) • Tom Schweich, Missouri auditor and Republican candidate for governor, died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound last month. Schweich said he was being subjected to an anti-Semitic whispering campaign. He believed that John Hancock, a GOP consultant who was elected February 21st as chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, was telling Republican donors and activists that Schweich was Jewish. Schweich was an Episcopalian and did have a Jewish grandfather. But in Judaism, the religion is passed down through the mother’s line, not the father’s. As far as the Orthodox rabbis are concerned, and by choice, Schweich was not Jewish. But is saying someone is Jewish or a Jew anti-Semitic? Not necessarily if you don’t precede it with any number of ugly adjectives, or if you don’t use it as an epithet. I’m okay if you say . . .

Review: Lily of Peru by David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963-65)

Mar 25 2015

Lily of Peru by David C. Edmonds (Peru 1963–65) A Peace Corps Writers Book January 2015 402 pages $16.95 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Geraldine Kennedy (Liberia 1962–64) • Peru in 1992 is besieged by the sinister evils of President Fujimura’s not-so-secret police and military, and the equally brutal atrocities of the guerilla terrorists, Shining Path. Throughout Andean villages, monuments to long-ago battles and massacres — one loss after another — display the centuries of resentment descendants of the Incas bear toward the descendants of Pizzaro and his conquistadors. The ancient is very much a part of the present. Multiple bad guys fight each other, trampling the innocent and poor with abandon. Into this violent mix, under the pretext of attending an academic conference, Professor Mark Thorsen travels to Lima for a secret rendezvous with an old love. Mark and Marisa met in Peru ten years before when he was . . .

John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Essay:The Lion in the Gardens of the Guenet Hotel in Cahaba River Literary Journal

Mar 25 2015

An essay of John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) “The Lion in the Gardens of the Guenet Hotel” is published in the Cahaba River Literary Journal (April/May 2015, Volume 1, Issue 1) page 21. Check out the site. It will be ‘live’ until next Tuesday. https://cahabariverliteraryjournal.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/cahaba-river-march-issue.pdf The editor is seeking poems and fiction and essay for further issues. Website URL: http://cahabariverliteraryjournal.com

Review: Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (Turkey 1965–67)

Mar 24 2015

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (Turkey 1965–67) Knopf May 2015 192 pages $24.00 (hardcover), $9.99 (Kindle), $25.00 (audio CD) Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–02, Madagascar 2002–03) • KENT HARUF DIED IN November at age 71; he achieved what most writers hope to, but nearly none will: he wrote beautiful, engaging, readable literary novels. Though he never realized the copious output or mass audience of the genre types, he was far superior a writer. In terms of the contemporary novel, very few could call him a peer; the short list might include Cormac McCarthy and Alice Munro. Among Peace Corps alumni literary writers, Haruf was arguably our best. His passing was noted widely in literary circles and the national press, and his achievements were commended by Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado, where Haruf set his books. Haruf’s short novel, Our Souls at Night, releasing posthumously in May, . . .

Free Enrollment For Class: How To Write A Novel in 100 Days:

Mar 24 2015

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR SKILLSHARE CLASS Hello. I want to mention that I’ve recorded a video class at Skillshare.com entitled How To Write A Novel in 100 Days. The class is about one hour long broken into 10 short videos. You can check out the site free and see if you want to take the class. The class is based on my book How To Write A Novel In 100 Days. Skillshare is a fascinating site. You might want to take other classes, or teach a course yourself. But if you are thinking of writing a novel-or know someone who might be interested–go to Skillshare and check out my course. You can do it for free, but you do have to look at my face and hear what I have to say. Well, nothing is totally without hardship. Thanks. Here is a link for free enrollment into the class:My Skillshare class “How to Write a . . .

Review — Mort(e) by Robert Repino (Grenada 2000-2002)

Mar 22 2015

Mort(e) by Robert Repino (Grenada 2000-2002) Soho Press January 2015 357 pages $26.95 (hardcover) Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) • IN HIS DEBUT NOVEL Mort(e) — the parenthetical in the title is clue prima facie that we are in the realm of experimental fiction — Robert Repino offers a sweeping, apocalyptic war story in which animals undergo “The Change” and rise up against their human masters. Behind the scenes and deep underground, a mutant queen ant a la James Cameron’s Aliens has produced a hormone that enters the world’s water systems; it changes animals on contact, giving them mental capacities and self-awareness equal to humans, and also morphs them physically. Just one drop and dogs and cats grow to human size, become bipedal, and their paws mutate into hands. A neutered housecat turned ragged frontline fighter, Sebastian, joins a unit of strays led by a violent . . .

Eileen Flanagan (Botswana 1984-86) Interview in Chestnut Hill Local

Mar 19 2015

Spiritual crisis recorded in Hiller’s acclaimed new book Eileen Flanagan, a member of Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting for the past 16 years, recounts how she dealt with a mid-life crisis of the spirit in her third book, Renewable: One Woman’s Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness and Hope, which was released March 3 by She Writes Press Publishers. The article appeared in the Chestnut Hill Local, a weekly newspaper serving Chestnut, in Northwest Philadelphia, PA and the surrounding communities. It was written by Len Lear. At the age of 49, a 16-year member of Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, Eileen Flanagan, had an agonizing feeling that she wasn’t living up to her potential – or her youthful ideals. A former Peace Corps volunteer who had once loved the simplicity of living in a mud hut in Botswana, southern Africa, she now had too many e-mails in her inbox and a basement full of . . .

Review of Mouse and Magic by Allan R. Gall (Turkey 1962-64)

Mar 18 2015

Of Mouse and Magic (Children) by Allan R. Gall (Turkey 1962–64) Two Harbors Press 278 pages 2011 $12.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Tom Weck (Ethiopia 1965–67) • Of Mouse and Magic is an engaging tale of Manny the Mouse, his family, and many other animals including both friends and predators. Manny is the smallest mouse in a new litter of mice. His parents fear for his survival as he seems very fragile. But Manny does not see it that way. He is born with a jagged white fur mark that, in his eyes, makes him feel like Zeus. And he acts accordingly showing both courage and leadership through his and his sibling’s many trials and tribulations. Admirably, the books does not shy away from addressing ‘survival’ – a daily struggle for these mice as they are hunted by predators on land and from the sky. Young readers will be astonished by . . .

Review of In Manchuria by Michael Meyer (China 1995-97)

Mar 17 2015

In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China by Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) Bloomsbury Press, $28.00 365 pages 2015 Reviewed by Arnold Zeitlin (Ghana 1961-63) Foreigners, especially Americans, living for a spell in China, often are overcome with an irresistible urge to explain China and the Chinese to their countrymen, especially Americans, who may ask a question about how much of a threat China is, then nod politely and change the subject to the latest baseball scores. Many of these same foreigners, especially Americans, after their first year of living among the Chinese, enthusiastically conclude, “why they are just like us.” Then, a year later, they conclude, “they are not like us at all.” Among the latest Americans to tell us about the Chinese is Michael Meyer. He is a writer who first went to China in 1995 as a member of the Peace Corps to . . .

Gerald Karey writes: The First Day

Mar 16 2015

A Writer Writes I wrote this about five years ago. It was, and is, the only time I have written at length about my Peace Corps service. Not that I didn’t value the experience, but I didn’t think it, or my contribution, was all that exceptional. I came, I taught English as a foreign language (just how well is not for me to judge), and I left. The Peace Corps was in Turkey for only eight years — from 1962 to 1970. The program was abandoned in an “increasingly fractious environment,” one former in-country director wrote. It was fueled by misunderstandings between the Peace Corps and the Turkish government, Peace Corps missteps (my TEFL group stormed Turkey with 200 Volunteers), a steady drumbeat of negative newspaper headlines, charges that Volunteers were CIA agents, and “Turkey’s descent into a morass of violence and radical politics,” the former director added. (If you’re . . .

Talking to Michael Meyer (China 1995-97)

Mar 16 2015

Michael Meyer received a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction after publishing his first book, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed. He has also held a Guggenheim Fellowship. His stories have appeared in Time, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated, Slate, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and on “This American Life.” In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China has just been published by Bloomsbury Press. Today, Michael teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh and spends his free semesters in Singapore. I recently interviewed Mike about his career, China, and his books. • Mike, where did you serve as a PCV and when? Peace Corps China 2; 1995-1997. . Q. Now you stayed on in China . . . was this so you could write Last Days? No, post-Corps, I moved to Beijing in 1997 . . .