Peace Corps writers – Page 33 – Peace Corps Worldwide

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

Nov 14 2014

In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China by Michael Meyer (China 1995–97) Bloomsbury Press February 2015 384 pages Pre-order: $28.00 (Hardcover), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by William Siegel (Ethiopia 1962-64) I’ve had an interest in literature about China since I discovered a volume of translated Chinese poems on my parent’s bookshelves. The book, a handsome hardbound edition in bright orange linen, had a picture on the front of a lone figure in flowing robes standing on a boat poling across a swift river. Inside was a poem by Li Po titled “The River Merchant’s Wife.” In the poem, as a nine or ten year old, I first found that words could evoke feelings such as the notion of longing. Michael Meyer’s absorbing second book about China (his first, The Last Days of Old Beijing, is one I’m looking forward to reading), brings us a fresh, inside . . .

Subject of Laurence Leamer's (Nepal 1964-66) book indicted in disaster at coal mine

Nov 14 2014

The main character in Laurence Leamer’s (Nepal 1964-66) book, The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption, Donald L. Blankenship, was indicted on four criminal counts by a federal grand jury yesterday in West Virginia. He was charged with widespread violations of safety rules and deceiving federal inspectors. 29 men died in 2010, the worst coal mine disaster in West Virginia in 40 years. In today’s New York Times, Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia is quoted with saying, “As he [Blankenship] goes to trial, he will be treated far fairer and with more dignity than he ever treated the miners he employed. And, frankly, it’s more than he deserves.” The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption won the 2014 Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award presented by Peace Corps Writers. [For those not familiar with early Peace Corps history, Jay Rockefeller, when he was . . .

Review: Dancing with Gogos by Gary Cornelius (South Africa 2012-13)

Nov 13 2014

Dancing with Gogos: A Peace Corps Memoir By Gary P. Cornelius Peace Corps Writers 280 pages 2014 $13.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Jack Allison (Malawi 1966-69) • Gary Cornelius has written an inviting Peace Corps memoir in minute detail, interspersed with cogent quotes and anecdotes, including entries from his blog posts. This is a fresh and refreshing saga, for Cornelius served from 2012 to 2013, and the book was published in 2014. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease which resulted in his early departure from South Africa with one year remaining on his term of service. Because this issue was introduced early on in the book, it created tension about what he would accomplish in one year after in-country training. Cornelius had wanted to join the Peace Corps for 40 years prior, even after two rejections due to pre-existing medical issues. He was also an older Volunteer — he was . . .

Amazon and Hachette Resolve Dispute

Nov 13 2014

By DAVID STREITFELDNOV. 13, 2014 New York Times Amazon and Hachette announced Thursday morning that they have resolved their differences and signed a new multiyear contract, bringing to an official end one of the most bitter publishing conflicts in recent years. Neither side gave details of the deal, but both pronounced themselves happy with the terms. Hachette gets the ability to set the prices on its e-books, which was a major battleground in the dispute. “This is great news for writers,” said Michael Pietsch, Hachette’s chief executive. “The new agreement will benefit Hachette authors for years to come. It gives Hachette enormous marketing capability with one of our most important bookselling partners.” An Amazon executive, David Naggar, said Amazon was “pleased with this new agreement as it includes specific financial incentives for Hachette to deliver lower prices, which we believe will be a great win for readers and authors alike.” The agreement . . .

Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) Publishes Three New Short Stories

Nov 10 2014

“Antidote,” in The Dr. T.J. Eckleburg Review (they also asked for an essay about writing the story, which he sent them); “A Lonely Man Talks to His Pig,” in Superstition Review; “Guinevere,” Chagrin River Review Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) is a former U.S. Foreign Service officer who has published more than 100 stories in magazines including The Atlantic, The Southern Humanities Review, The Idaho Review, The Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. His story “How Birds Communicate” won The Iowa Review fiction prize. His five books include A Handful of Kings, published by Simon and Shuster, and Stone Cowboy, by Soho Press, which won the Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Award. His website can be found at http://www.markjacobsauthor.com.

Rereading Paul Theroux's (Malawi 1963-65) Girls At Play, Part III

Nov 03 2014

What strikes me now rereading Girls At Play is how Theroux did not linger with prose on the beauty of Africa, as he has quite wonderfully uses his evocative skills in other books and essays. In those early books he does not wax and wane as RPCV writers tend to do (including myself) on descriptions of the landscape. In those three novels, he was more interested in the play of personalities in Africa than the lay of the land. Theroux’s third novel on Africa is Jungle Lovers which focuses on Malawi, looking at the changing political and social climate of the country. It came about because of what happened to him when he was teaching at the university in Kampala. “Jungle Lovers was the result of my departure from Africa,” Paul writes. “In 1968, after five years in Malawi and Uganda, my wife and I were attacked by rioting students . . .

Rereading Paul Theroux's (Malawi 1963-65) Girls At Play, Part II

Nov 02 2014

Theroux’s first novel Waldo was a picaresque story of a young man who became a success as a writer. It sold around 4000 copies, which was impressive for a first novel, but did not generate enough money for Theroux to quit his day job. His second novel Fong and the Indians, was the first of many “African books” and it was his first book (of many) that dealt with the complexities of a changing Africa. The protagonist was a bungling anti-hero, Sam Fong, a Chinese Catholic grocer. It, too, had limited sales and while it had good reviews, especially in England, it didn’t make any best seller lists. Then came Girls at Play a year later. Paul would write about writing Girls at Play: “My future wife taught at a girls’ school in Kenya. While I was writing (Fong and the Indians), I courted her by driving hundreds of miles . . .

Rereading Paul Theroux's (Malawi 1963-65) Girls At Play

Nov 01 2014

I have been working my way through a new collecting of short stories by Paul Theroux, Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories, which Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published this September. Only one of the stories (so far) relates to his time in Africa. It is entitled, “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife.” It is the last story in the collection. (Writers–or perhaps their editors–) selected the best stories for the first and last ones in any collection. I first read Girls At Play in the late Sixties. This novel was his third. His first book was Waldo (1967), next three were set in Africa. Fong and the Indians (1968), Girls at Play (1969), and Jungle Lovers (1971). At the time, I remember reviewers were saying Theroux was ‘writing too fast,’ that he should slow down his publishing. At the same time Saturday Review called Fong and the Indians “a small masterpiece.” (If he . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — October 2014

Nov 01 2014

Rush of Shadows (Historical Fiction) by Catherine Bell (Brazil 1966–68) Washington Writers Publishing House October 2014 384 pages $17.95 (paperback) • Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy (Peace Corps Memoir) by Christopher R. Hill (Cameroon 1974–76) Simon & Schuster October 2014 448 pages $30.00 (hardcover), $12.74 (Kindle) • Love & Ordinary Creatures (Novel) by Gwyn Hyman Rubio (Costa Rica 1971–73) Ashland Creek Press 306 pages October 2014 $17.95 (paperback) • Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories by Paul Theroux (Malawi Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 368 pages September 2014 $27.00 (hardcover), $14.85 (Kindle) • A Man Named Jay: the true story of a boy who died and the man who lived (Children) by Damian Wampler (Kyrgyzstan) CreateSpace 70 pages January 2014 •

Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76) Wins Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction

Oct 22 2014

By Ron Charles September 24 (Courtesy of Grove/Atlantic) “The Woman Who Lost Her Soul,” an epic about America’s unbridled military ambitions, has won this year’s Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction. In their announcement of the $10,000 award this morning, the judges said that novelist Bob Shacochis “creates an intricate portrait of the catastrophic events that have led to an endless cycle of vengeance and war between cultures.” This complex, demanding novel about a father-daughter pair of spies was a . . .

John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Featured on Examiner.com

Oct 13 2014

John Coyne talks about the reissue of Child of Shadows October 11, 201411:32 AM MST Best-selling author of The Legacy and Hobgoblin, John Coyne talks about the reissue of Child of Shadows, his spine tingling suspense/horror novel, available now, via Harvest Moon Press. Child of Shadows Harvest Moon Press Mr. Coyne graciously took time to answer questions about Child of Shadows, his inspiration genre blending in fiction, and what scares him the most. Your novel, Child of Shadows has been reissued with Harvest Moon Press, have you reread it? Was there anything you would have rewritten/changed? Rereading it was a special pleasure as (believe it or not) I had forgotten much of the plot, the twists and turns of the story, so that for me, it was like reading a new book, discovering an old friend. What is the first sentence of Child of Shadows? Detective Nick Kardatzke stepped carefully through the sewage water, the . . .

How I Taught Myself to Write Fiction by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65)

Oct 12 2014

On October 6th, Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963–65) was featured on Lorrie Bodger’s site TheBookUnderHerBed.com discussing her first steps to becoming an award winning author. Among Marnie’ awards is the 1995 Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Fiction Award for her Peace Corps novel, Green Fires. • Guest post: A writer learns to write by Lorrie Bodger Marnie Mueller is the award-winning author of three novels: Green Fires, The Climate of the Country, and My Mother’s Island. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador in the early 1960s, a community organizer in El Barrio in NYC, and then a member of Mayor Lindsay’s administration, responsible for programming cultural events in all five boroughs. She left city government to become Development Director and later Program Director of WBAI-FM radio; after WBAI she ran her own business producing citywide events, concerts, benefits, and weddings. Today she’s a full-time writer (and MacDowell Colony Fellow), . . .

Review: At Home on the Kazkh Steppe by Janet Givens (Kazakhstan 2004-06)

Oct 12 2014

At Home on the Kazakh Steppe: A Peace Corps Memoir by Janet Givens (Kazakhstan 2004–06) Ant Press, August 2014; Birch Tree Book, 2015 208 pages $14.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) • At 55, Janet Givens and her husband, Woody, join the Peace Corps and go to Kazakhstan. Woody had been a Professor of Speech Pathology at Temple University, and Janet was a Certified Gestalt Psychotherapist. Leaving their comfortable life, their children, their grandchildren and their beloved dog was heartbreaking, but they met the challenge wholeheartedly. Their first months with their host family brought the predictable culture shock, with emotional tensions that nearly shattered their marriage. While Woody expected respect in his university teaching position, as an expert in his field, Janet wanted the grass roots Peace Corps experience, without cell phones or lap tops, learning how to teach young people English in a baffling . . .

Peter Hessler covers Cairo’s trash

Oct 10 2014

John Coyne writes: The New Yorker for October 13, 2014 has a great piece by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) entitled, “Tales Of The Trash: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt.” It’s Peter’s Letter From Cairo. Peter writes, “Waste collectors like Sayyid Ahmed, known as zabaleen, work in an informal economy, but they provide a remarkable efficient recycling service and become experts on their neighborhood.” The article is available online at: NewYorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales-trash

Review: Letters from Yemen by Mary Lou Currier (Yemen 1991–94)

Oct 10 2014

Letters from Yemen (Peace Corps letters) by Mary Lou Currier (Yemen 1991–94) CreateSpace 158 pages June 2014 $21.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Darcy M. Meijer (Gabon 1982–84) • The older I get, the more I appreciate straightforward writing. And the more I travel, the more I understand the world. I have just finished reading Mary Lou Currier’s Letters from Yemen, a collection of 158 color photographs and letters written home during her Peace Corps service as a TEFL teacher from 1991 to 1994. I chose this book to review because I currently live in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The Republic of Yemen is my neighbor to the south, with only the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between us. Yemen also borders Oman and has coasts on the Red and Arabian Seas. Due to the uneasy situation in Yemen now, I doubt I will visit it, but I . . .