Peace Corps writers

Hunger and Hope by George W. Norton (Colombia 1971–73) Waveland Press, Inc. 179 pages $18.95 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) 2014 Reviewed by Ronald A Schwarz (Colombia 1961–63) In 1961 Sargent Shriver relentlessly cornered members of Congress to establish the Peace Corps. His assets were vision, passion, charm and chutzpah. If he returned to the agency today, he would have other tools in his box. One of the most useful would be Hunger and Hope by George W. Norton. In the early 1970s, George and his wife Marj were volunteers with the Coffee Federation in Colombia. Later he earned a doctorate in Agricultural Economics and began his career as a professor, international consultant and author (his list of scientific publications covers 20 pages). Hunger and Hope addresses the complex factors related to poverty, hunger and agricultural development in a readable and deeply personal manner.  Anecdotes drawn from Norton’s Peace Corps years complement . . .

Thanks to a ‘heads up’ from Murray Frank (CD Nigeria 1961-63  & HQ 1963-65) I read this morning the glowing Sunday New York Times review of Margery Michelmore Heffron’s (Nigeria 1961) book Louise Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams published by Yale University Press. As the reviewer, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, noted, “Heffron, an independent scholar, succumbed to cancer before finishing a project that engaged her imagination for more than 30 years. Readers will nonetheless be grateful for this fascinating, if partial, portrait of an exceptional woman, and regret that its talented author fell silent too soon.” On December 15, 2011, on this site, I published a blog item using the title, “In Some Ways, She is the most famous RPCV of us all.” In it, I summed up Margery early Peace Corps career: As Michelmore, Margery went to Nigeria in 1961 with the first group of PCVs, in the first year of . . .

[As perhaps a companion piece to my blog item on the shift in America towards involvement in the world, I’d like to re-post a brilliant book review of Innocents Abroad: Teacheres in the American Century by David Espey (Morocco 1962-64) who teaches in the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Dave has also been a Fulbright Lecturer in Morocco, Turkey, and Japan. The book review was brought to my attention by an email I received from Dick Joyce (Philippines 1962-64) who commented on reading Zimmerman’s book, “I’m prompted to write because I finally got around to reading Innocents Abroad and I really enjoyed it. It is great to see how things one observed and sometimes participated in on a small scale were parts of larger historic trends. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have known of the book if  you hadn’t recommended it on one of your websites several . . .

You have heard of the writer James Patterson. You have, I’m guessing, read at least one of his books. He’s the most popular and prolific writer to come along in the last decade. An estimated one out of every 17 hardcover novels purchased in the United States is his, dwarfing the sales of both Harry Potter and the Twilight vampires. To put it another way, James Patterson’s books account for one out of every 17 hardcover novels purchased in the United States. He is certainly the ‘king’ of summertime beach reading. Recently journalist Joe Berkowitz interviewed Patterson on the website Fast Company Create. In his interview, Berkowitz made the point that what makes Patterson so successful is “his colloquial storytelling style that grabs a hold of readers early on, instilling an insatiable need to know what happens next.” In his interview on the website, Patterson gave 8 points that dictates . . .

In March co-authors Leah Bassoff and Laura DeLuca (Kenya 1987–89) published the young adult novel entitled Lost Girl Found. The story revolves around a young girl — Ponti — whose life in her small village in southern Sudan is simple and complicated at the same time. But when the war comes and there is only one thing for Poni to do. Run. Run for her life. Driven by the sheer will to survive and the hope that she can somehow make it to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, Poni sets out on a long, dusty trek across the east African countryside with thousands of refugees. In Kakuma she is almost overwhelmed by the misery that surrounds her. Poni realizes that she must leave the camp at any cost. Her next destination is a refugee compound in Nairobi. There, if she is lucky, she can continue her education and even . . .

Chasing Misery: An Anthology of Essays by Women in Humanitarian Responses Edited by Kelsey Hoppe Includes essays by Miranda Bryant (Kazakhstan 2000–02), Caryl Feldacker (Ecuador 1999–01), Emilie Greenhalgh (Cameroon 2007–09), Carmen Sheehan (Ecuador 2000–03); and photographs by Jenn Warren (Jordan 2002) CreateSpace $10.25 (paperback), $6.99 (Kindle) 318 pages 2014 Reviewed by Susi Wyss (Central African Republic 1990-92) All of the two dozen essays in Chasing Misery are written by women-including four recent RPCVs-who are attempting to describe their experiences working on humanitarian responses of the last decade around the world. While these crises each have their own causes and particular issues, and the people who work on them each have their own motivations and experiences, the world of humanitarian aid and the people dispensing it share enough in common to make this collection a cohesive whole. As any RPCV who has tried to write about their own experience knows, what . . .

The 1929 Bunion Derby: Johnny Salo and the Great Footrace across America by Charles B. Kastner (Seychelles 1980–82) Syracuse University Press $24.95 (hard cover) 304 pages April 2014 Reviewed by Thomas E. Coyne WOULD YOU RUN across the continental United States? Would you run across the continental United States . . . twice? You will notice that I did not ask if you COULD run across the country twice. In his book, The 1929 Bunion Derby, author Charles Kastner makes it clear there were any number of men quite willing to put on their running shoes and try . . . willing,  just not able. Charles Kastner has written two books about C. C. Pyle’s epic, but almost forgotten, International Trans-continental Foot Races in 1928 and 1929. The first, Bunion Derby: The 1928 Footrace Across America, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2007 grew out of a 2001 Kastner article in . . .

Confessions of a Secret Latina: How I Fell Out of Love with Castro & in Love with the Cuban People by Barbara E. Joe (Honduras 2000–03) CreateSpace $15.77 (paperback), $5.99 (Kindle) 434 pages 2014 Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964–66) I agree 100% with Barbara Joe, the real criminals are the Castro brothers . . . Fidel and Raul! What they have done to the people of Cuba cannot be tolerated . . . simply said, they have been cruel and inhumane to the very people that brought them to power.  A recently released Afro-Cuban former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Dr. Oscar Biscet, said that 85% of Cuban prisoners are of African descent.  And many prisoners are behind bars not because they committed a crime, but because the Castro brothers feel the individual may perhaps in the future commit a crime against the Peoples Republic of Cuba . . . lock them up before they . . .

Dear Writers, This is to introduce StoryMondo, an exciting new website where you can publish your short stories and verse. But the writing we publish is special. It must have a “sense of place” – it must in some way illustrate features or evoke the atmosphere of a particular location. We publish two kinds of writing: Short stories: up to 1,500 words long, these can include folk tales and legends, new or adapted from the old; travellers’ tales about places you have visited; and descriptions or stories that say something about where you grew up or where you live Verse: haiku, sonnets or other forms of poetry, containing any or all of the elements above Your writing can be about any topic – but it must always have a connection with real physical places such as cities, mountains, rivers, buildings and countries – and so can be shown by a . . .

Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76) yesterday was named a finalist for the 2014 pulitzer-150Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Shacochis was nominated for his work The Woman Who Lost Her Soul. Published by Atlantic Monthly Press, the novel spans 50 years and three continents. The book explores the murky world of American foreign policy before 9/11, using provocative themes to raise difficult moral questions. The 2014 prize went to Donna Tartt, for her novel The Goldfinch. Pulitzer winners and finalists are announced simultaneously. Shacochis attended the University of Missouri and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and currently teaches creative writing at Florida State University. The Publishers Weekly starred review says of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul: “A brutal American-style John le Carré, Shacochis details how espionage not only reflects a nation’s character but can also endanger its soul. Gritty characters find themselves in grueling situations against a moral and physical landscape depicted . . .

  Iran – Stories from the Peace Corps by John Krauskopf (Iran 1965-67) Lulu Publisher, $20.00 296 pages 2013 Reviewed by Deidre Swesnik (Mali 1996-98) • “Terry O’Donnell was an elfin man, small of stature, who walked with a limp. An adventurer and a romantic, he had found in Iran the perfect venue for his romanticism.” So begins one of the more compelling stories in Iran – Stories from the Peace Corps by John Krauskopf. Krauskopf seems at his best when he is describing a character or recouting a particular moment in time. There are a number of great stories in this book that do one or the other. “In Some Ways We Are Not So Different” is the story of Terry O’Donnell, the elfin man who is himself telling a story. He tells the story of an American who is bombastically critical of Iranian culture, when he clearly doesn’t really know . . .

CONFESIONES DE UNA LATINA SECRETA Originally published 4/2/14 by elNuevoHerald.com Por Olga Conner Barbara E. Joe es la “latina secreta” que trajo su nuevo libro. Confessions of a Secret Latina: How I Fell Out of Love with Castro and in Love with the Cuban People, a Books & Books. Me invitó Silvia Sarasúa, relacionada con la causa de los derechos humanos. Barbara Joe es una activista también de más de 30 años con Amnesty International USA, que ha trabajado con los Cuerpos de Paz en Honduras, sobre lo que publicó otro libro, Triumph and Hope. Al llegar a la librería me sorprendió ver allí a Jorge Valls y a Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez, poetas que estuvieron años en prisiones políticas cubanas. Ellos son parte del libro de Joe, que surgió al tener una airada confrontación con un antiguo amigo sobre su participación en un filme documental sobre las “damas de blanco” . . .

Marty writes: Cannons for the Cause is a novel about the early days of the American Revolution. It is a gripping story of friendships formed, families divided, first loves, and of loyalty, courage and patriotism. In the brutal winter of 1775-1776, sixteen year old Will Stoner is one of many teamsters hauling heavy cannons more than 300 miles from Ft. Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Cambridge, Massachusetts. The train of wagons and sleds struggles across the partially frozen Hudson River and through a blizzard in the steep Berkshire mountains, to bring the desperately needed artillery to General Washington, preparing to attack the British in Boston. Cannons for the Cause places Will in the midst of actual, but little known,  historical events — a race riot in Cambridge between the Marblehead Mariners, the first integrated unit of the Continental Army, and a militia of backwoods riflemen; and the stealthy night . . .