Peace Corps writers

Please nominate your favorite book published in 2014 and written by an RPCV, PCV or Peace Corps Staff. Anyone may nominate any book, even their own. Certificates and a small cash prize will be presented at the NPCA Conference this coming June at Berkeley, California. These awards from Peace Corps Writers have been given out since 1990  to encourage, recognize and promote Peace Corps writers. Awards are given in the following categories: The Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award The Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Award for Best Poetry Book The Award for Best Travel Book The Award for Best Children’s Book The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Memoir Award The Award for Best Photography Book Editors Special Awards

2,000 Miles Around the Tree of Life: A Naturalist Hikes the Appalachian Trail by Richard W. Carroll (Central Africa Republic 1976–82) A Peace Corps Writers Book December 2014 126 pages $10.00 (paperback), $8.95 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon 1965–67) • Readers of Richard W. Carroll’s 2,000 Miles Around the Tree of Life about his extraordinary five-month journey from the southernmost point of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, to his arrival at the northernmost end (or beginning depending on where you start) in Maine, need to understand that is not a memoir as the jacket copy states. It is, rather, a journal — something Carrol explains on the final page of the book — meant to “keep the memories alive.” So expect grand courage, an oh-so impressive stoicism as he suffers the often dire rigors of such a momentous hike, and experience his joy vicariously with each discovery he . . .

The WSJ reports that a group of publishers are (finally!) getting together and creating a website for readers. The site, scheduled to go live on April 8, 2015 is called Literary Hub. It will focus on literary fiction and nonfiction, and it will present personal and critical essays, interviews and book excerpts contributed by 70 partners ranging from small press New Directions to heavyweights such as Scribner, Knopf and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Literary magazines such as the Paris Review will also contribute. The site at www.lithub.com will commission original content. Literary Hub partners said that by funneling readers to one central place, they hope that each would be able to reach a broader audience. Duh! Another way to fight Amazon, I guess, finally since we have no bookstores or newspapers writing reviews of what we publish. Well, it is about time. COMING APRIL 8, 2015 LITERARY HUB There is . . .

What the Zhang Boys Know: A Novel in Stories by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976–77) Press 53 2012 201 pages $17.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Jan Worth-Nelson (Tonga 76-78) • Clifford Garstang calls What the Zhang Boys Know a “novel in stories,” and it’s an appropriate characterization. The 12 linked tales all take place in and around a sprawling condo complex in Washington, D.C. called the Nanking Mansion, and the characters within compellingly weave in and out of all the intersecting plots. The big old edifice serves effectively as narrative frame and plot architecture. As in any good novel, the inhabitants of Nanking Mansion, a colorful mix of artists, writers, young professionals and dislocated immigrants, are absorbing and complex. One roots for them, cares about them, despairs of their tragedies major and minor, and celebrates their vindications. In the launching story, we meet everyone in the midst of a complicated melee in . . .

In December, James Beebe (Philippines from 1968-73) published his “Peace Corps memoir” Those Were the Days — A Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the Late ‘60s with Peace Corps Writers. I interviewed James about his impressive accomplishments, and about writing his memoir. — Marian • What was your Peace Corp project assignment? I was an Education Volunteer — elementary science, rice production, part-time college teaching. . Tell us about where you lived and worked prior to Peace Corps and  your educational background. I grew up mostly in New Orleans, Louisiana and Panama City, Florida. My education includes: before Peace Corps I was a student at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida; Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana; and New York University; after Peace Corps, I was a graduate student at Stanford University where I earned an M.A. in anthropology, an M.A. in Food Research (International Development . . .

Eleanor Stanford (Cape Verde 1998-2000) new book of poems, Bartram’s Garden, has just released from Carnegie Mellon University Press. The collection of poems takes the reader from Brazil’s Bay of All Saints to Philadelphia, from Florida’s brutal humidity to the drought-scorched Cape Verde Islands. Bartram’s Garden takes in the pulse and ache of the natural world: the bittern balanced in the swamp, cashew fruit’s astringent flesh. Passionflower, rattlesnake, feather-tongued hibiscus. With a gardener’s eye for color and motif, and a mother’s open-hearted sensibility, these poems explore vivid landscapes both intimate and foreign. Of this new collection, poet Moira Egan has written, “These poems sing gorgeously ‘with their glowing throats / and feathered tongues.’” Eleanor is the author of another poetry collection, The Book of Sleep (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2008) and her Peace Corps memoir, História, História: Two Years in the Cape Verde Islands (Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, 2013). She . . .

Finding Neguinho by David Randle (Brazil 1964-66; Brazil staff 1967–69); with illustrations by Mary M. Jones Page Publishing June 2014 256 pages $25.95 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Barbara E. Joe (Honduras 2000-03) • In 1964, after college graduation, newlyweds David and Inga Randle, both from Indiana farming families, find themselves far from home in the Peace Corps in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, “bigger than Texas,” a region sharing traits with the American Wild West . . . with disagreements being settled through the barrel of a gun. Also, a military coup has just occurred in Brazil, but is little felt in that remote world. Neighbors call the author “Dr. David,” — as, indeed, Hondurans still call me “Doctora Bárbara” on my annual visits there. He is permitted to drive a Peace Corps 4 x 4 Willy’s  station wagon, and often gives people a lift — who are helpful when . . .

Imagine you are on a plane to a destination you know very little about and you will be living there for two years. On top of that, you don’t know anyone else going on this adventure, you only have a vague idea of what you will be doing, and you are not sure if you even made the right decision to go in the first place. A major comfort, though, is you know that you aren’t the only person having this anxiety because this is just the beginning of a Peace Corps Volunteer’s service. Tales from a Muzungu by Nicholas Duncan tells of the highs and lows of his two-year experience in Uganda from 2010 to 2012 as a Peace Corps Volunteer. In his book, he details a variety of topics including: The atmosphere of Uganda. The the day-to-day life of a Volunteer. What his first impressions were of the . . .

Why ISIS Murdered Kenji Goto BY GEORGE PACKER (Togo 1982-83) Why did ISIS execute a second Japanese hostage? Before the beheading of the journalist Kenji Goto, Japan didn’t think that it was even in a fight with the Islamic State. All Japan had done was contribute a couple of hundred million dollars in humanitarian aid to countries fighting ISIS. Then the man who has come to be known as Jihadi John, the executioner with the London accent seen in several of the group’s videos, threatened death to every Japanese person on the planet as he prepared to slaughter Goto. As a result, a political scientist at the University of Tokyo told the Times, “The cruelty of the Islamic State has made Japan see a harsh new reality. … We now realize we face the same dangers as other countries do.” People in Japan are now calling Kenji Goto’s murder their 9/11. Why did ISIS allow its . . .

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com, click on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. • The Road to Tamazunchale (Novel – reissue as ebook) by Ron Arias (Peru 1963–65) Bilingual Press September 2014 134 pages $8.69 (Kindle) • Truth Poker: Stories by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991–93) Autumn House Press January 2015 180 pages $17.95 (paperback) • 2,000 Miles Around the Tree of Life: A Naturalist Hikes  the Appalachian Trail (Memoir) by Richard W. Carroll Peace Corps Writers December 2014 126 pages $10.00 (paperback), $8.82 (Kindle) • Lily of Peru (Romance, thriller) by David C. Edmonds (Peru 1963–65) Peace Corps Writers December 2014 402 pages $15.95 (paperback) • Global Political Economy by Eddie James Girdner . . .

ELLEN URBANI (Guatemala 1991-93) is the author of the Peace Corps memoir When I Was Elena (The Permanent Press, 2006), a Book Sense Notable selection documenting her life in Guatemala during the final years of that country’s civil war. She will publish in August, Landfall, a work of historical fiction set in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Her autobiographical essays and short stories have appeared in a variety of bestselling pop-culture anthologies such as Chocolate for a Woman’s Heart. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama, and following the Peace Corps, she earned a master’s degree in art therapy from Maryhurst University, specializing in illness/trauma survival. Her work in this field was the subject of a short documentary, “Paint Me a Future,” which won the Juror’s Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2000, qualifying it for Oscar consideration. Ellen is considered an expert on . . .

The New York Times this morning ran an Obit on Jack Leggett, long time director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In the obituary, it quotes Leggett saying that when he took over the program in 1970 there were a lot of kids out of the army and the Peace Corps enrolling. “They were an undisciplined lot,” he told the Times in a 1979. “They’d say: ‘Don’t tell me about form.’” Among the RPCVs that I know of who attended the Iowa program (and I know there are many more) are Phil Damon (Ethiopia 1963-65); Kent Haruf (Turkey 1965-67); Richard Wiley (Korea 1967-69);Chuck Lustig (Colombia 1967-68); Bob Shacochis. In the TIMES article, Bob Shacochis is quoted, “If it can be said that any one person was responsible for Iowa City being celebrated as the center of gravity for the workshop culture in the literary life of America, that person was Jack . . .

Getting to Where I Am by Richard Carroll (1976–82) I walked the Appalachian Trail in 1975 in a journey that spanned five months and one day. I stepped across an engraved plaque set in stone at Springer Mountain, Georgia marking the southern terminus of the A.T. on April 14th, and climbed Mt. Katahdin, Maine, the northern terminus, on September 15th. I would have completed the climb the day before, but it had snowed on the mountain, and the park service closed the trail, thus I wound up experiencing all four seasons on the Appalachian Trail. That last night I rested in a shelter, let my guard down, and got a commemorative hole in my pack from a mouse rummaging around for the remnants of the food I carried. After five months of hanging my pack, boots, food bag, and anything edible or sweaty in trees to stave off bears, porcupines, . . .

The Bilingual Press at Arizona State University has released 11 of its titles as ebooks, including Ron Arias’, The Road to Tamazunchale. The ebooks are available through Amazon, Apple iTunes Store, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Overdrive, and can be linked to ebook versions from the Bilingual Press website. The project to convert the titles to ebook formats was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.” When the book was published, Library Journal wrote, “The Road to Tamazunchale is one of the first achieved works of Chicano consciousness and spirit.” Of the book, the Midwest Book Review said: “This skillful and imaginative Chicano novel (nominated for the National Book Award) tells the story of Don Fausto, a very old man on the verge of death who lives in the barrio of Los Angeles. Rather than resigning himself, he embarks on a glorious journey in and . . .