Peace Corps writers

The Wall Street Journal asked 50 of 2014’s most influential people for their book picks. Kaci Hickox, a Doctors without Borders nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, selected Lost Girl Found, and this is what she had to say about it. (You may remember Kaci Hickok as the nurse who refused Ebola  quarantine in Maine and New Jersey.) Although this year seemed to be filled with oldies but goodies, at the top of my list of new books is Leah Bassof and Laura DeLuca ‘s (Kenya 1987–89) “Lost Girl Found.” Having read many books about the “lost boys” of Sudan, this was a refreshing piece of fiction highlighting the struggles and triumphs of a young female Sudanese refugee. Poni, the main character, describes her life of extremes, saying: “When I dance, I can jump out of my pain for just a moment.” Here’s an excerpt from my May . . .

Mongolia Monologues: The Trials, Tribulations, Triumphs and Truths of a Feisty, Fifty-Something Peace Corps Volunteer by Joanne Nussbaum (Mongolia 2010–12) BookBaby November 2014 103 pages $3.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964–66) Age is just a Number! Young at heart, Joanne, a mother,  sets out to become a Peace Corps Volunteer in 2010 at the age of 53. “Can I make it,” she asks herself, “and Peace Corps wants to send me to Mongolia . . . where is that?” Training is rough and so are her first six months in beautiful Mongolia. Joanne tries, but the Mongolian language is difficult and she never is able to master it. But her heart is with her new community, and is full of the Peace Corps spirit to learn from others. Her students see her as a true friend and someone they trust, and they enjoy spending time together. These are HER students! . . .

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. Those Were the Days: A Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the Late ‘60s (Peace Corps essay collection) by James Beebe (Philippines 1968–73) Peace Corps Writers December 2014 162 pages $14.95 (paperback) • Rapid Qualitative Inquiry: A Field Guide to Team-Based Assessment (Second Edition) by James Beebe (Philippines 1968–73) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers October 2014 282 pages $38.00 (paperback) • Tales from A Muzungu (Peace Corps memoir) by Nicholas Duncan (Uganda 2010–12) Peace Corps Writers December 2014 156 pages $14.95 (paperback) • 100 Things to Do in Tampa Bay before You Die by Kristen Hare (Guyana 2000–02) St. Louis: . . .

Those Were the Days, published by Peace Corps Writers, is a series of vignettes of significant, often funny, and sometimes quite serious events, from James Beebe’s Peace Corps experience in the Philippine from October 1968 to May 1973. During that time he was profoundly changed by the joy of life and economic inequality he discovered. As a Volunteer he helped introduce a new activity-based approach to science teaching, learned the truth of the children’s rhyme that “Planting Rice is No Fun,” and taught part-time at a college. For him life included buying a one-of-a-kind mosquito net, being offered a love potion, witnessing funeral processions of poor babies, celebrating holidays, and being attacked by dogs after eating dog meat. The cloud of the Vietnam War also had a significant impact on James. But his most life-changing event almost didn’t happen when Maria, the “matchmaker’s” intended choice for James, accused the Peace . . .

Call for submissions Cahaba River Literary Journal Published Bi-monthly (every 2 months) Debuts April 2015 Essays, Fiction, Poetry & BW Photography Subscription: $35 year for 6 issues Call for submissions: We work with new and seasoned writers. We need stories, poems, essays, and BW photography on all subjects, in any form. Editor’s Tips: “Present to me your best works: I want to laugh, cry, be sad, get angry at the story or poem of just have fun sharing it with our readers. I want ‘awe’ when I seen your photos!” Length of stories: no more than 2500 words; poetry no more than 25 lines (only submit 3 poems at one time); BW photos (no more than 5 photos with a short story (no more than 150 words to accompany it as a caption). Pays in copies. EMAIL SUBMISSIONS ONLY. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS MARCH 20th, 2015. Cahaba River Literary Journal 2413 Bethel Rd. Logansport, LA 71049 USA 318-564-6031 Email: marcies04@yahoo.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/1505827313012865/ . . .

Kent Haruf dies at 71; novelist illuminated small-town life By Elaine Wood Los Angeles Times Kent Haruf, who found acclaim in midlife with a trilogy of sparely written novels, including the 1999 bestseller “Plainsong” that illuminated the rhythms and dramas of small-town life in America’s High Plains, died Sunday in Salida, Colo. He was 71 and had cancer, according to a spokesman for his publisher, Knopf Doubleday. Haruf (pronounced like sheriff) rooted his novels in the fictional small town of Holt, a composite of the three Colorado towns where he grew up. His creation inspired him in the same way that the apocryphal Yoknapatawpha County served one of his idols, William Faulkner. Haruf “has learned from Faulkner the wisdom of knowing something very well, of being at home there, that the more something is specific, the more it is universal,” novelist Richard Russo told the New York Times after “Plainsong” . . .

from The Denver Post Kent Haruf, 1943-2014: An astute observer of rural life in the West By Lisa Kennedy With the death of novelist Kent Haruf, Colorado has lost one if its celebrated native sons, its astute and wise observer of rural life and community on Colorado’s Eastern Plains. The prize-winning author of the acclaimed trilogy “Plainsong,” “Eventide” and 2013’s “Benediction” – all set in the fictional town of Holt, Colo. – died Sunday at the age of 71. The cause was interstitial lung disease. He is survived by his wife, Cathy, and three daughters. Additional survivors are three stepdaughters and two stepsons. “He really was a giant,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said Monday of the writer, who was born in Pueblo in 1943. Among Haruf’s many literary honors were the prestigious Whiting Foundation Award for his first novel, “The Tie That Binds“; the Center of the American West’s Wallace Stegner Award, . . .

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. Launched in 2006, it has already established itself as one of the world’s most prestigious literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. As an offshoot of the Dayton Peace Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards a $10,000 cash prize each year to one fiction and one nonfiction author whose work advances peace as a solution to conflict, and leads readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. Additionally, the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award is bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize’s mission; previous honorees include Wendell Berry, Taylor Branch, Geraldine Brooks, Barbara Kingsolver, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Tim O’Brien, Studs Terkel, and Elie Wiesel. “The Woman . . .

100 Things to Do in Tampa Bay before You Die by Kristen Hare (Guyana 2000–02) St. Louis: Reedy Press June 2014 140 pages $16.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993-96) Kristen Hare describes her Peace Corps experience in Guyana as “sweaty, wonderful, sad and hard, and I’d do it again in a second.” Kristen married a Guyanese man and, in 2012, they moved to Tampa with their children. Kristen has the soul of a reporter. Presently a reporter for The Poynter Institute, she previously worked as a staff writer with the St. Louis Beacon and as a features writer with the St. Joseph News-Press. Her stories have earned national honors, including the Darrell Sifford Memorial Prize in Journalism from the University of Missouri and first place wins from the Society for Features Journalism. I loved her blog, Hard Corps, a collection of hilarious, horrible Peace Corps stories. So, . . .

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 our annual writers awards. • Ladyboy and the Volunteer (Peace Corps Memoir) by Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91) Peace Corps Writers November 2014 288 pages $13.99 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) • Water Skiing on the Amazon: A Memoir for My Grandchildren (Peace Corps Memoir) by Patricia S. Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962–64) Jewelweed October 2014 166 pages $20.79 (paperback) • Unhinged: Reflections, Opinions, Humor, Reminiscences, an Occasional Rant, Reportage — A Random Chronicle of Our Times (Essays) by Gerald Karey (Turkey 1965–67) Small Batch Books October 2014 414 pages $19.95 (paperback) • Mongolia Monologues: The Trials, Tribulations, Triumphs and Truths of a Feisty, Fifty-Something Peace Corps Volunteer by Joanne Nussbaum (Mongolia 2010–12) . . .

The current issue of The New Yorker (December1, 2014) carries a long, long piece by George Packer (Togo 1982-83) entitled “The Quiet German” that focuses on Angela Merkel, who Packer calls, “the most powerful woman in the world.” Packer, who has been a staff writer for magazine since 2003, last spring was an Axel Springer Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Merkel, who George writes, gives few interviews and almost always to German publications, and all anodyne, declined to speak to him. That said, this is a fascinating account of Merkel, and comes with a page of ‘head shots’ of the woman done by Herlinde Koelbl who has been photographing Merkel since 1991. Koelbl was one of many people that Packer interviewed for this article. Merkel might not have much to say, but she does, it seems, like to have her photo taken, though Packer reports Koelbl said, “Merkel . . .

A Writer Writes Red Dress Magic by Karel Amaranth Karel Amaranth is a family friend (she attended college with my wife) and has a Bachelors degree in English and Creative Writing, and a Master of Arts degree in Fine Arts and Art Therapy.  She completed a Masters degree in Public Health at New York Medical College writing her thesis on an innovative project to address maternal mortality. While not an RPCV (well, no one is perfect) she has been working for 3 years with the Rotary Club of Makindye in Kampala, Uganda as the co-founder of Holistic Care for Mothers.  She traveled to Uganda this past summer to visit health facilities and women’s groups  to assess the needs of the communities and assist in strategic planning with Rotary Clubs, health providers and government officials, including the King of Tororo.  Holistic Care for Mothers has distributed more than 10,000 birthing kits . . .