Peace Corps writers

[These three poems appears in October, 1989 (Volume 1, Number 3) of RPCV Writers, the first publication Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64) and I produced as a Third Goal Initiative that focused on Peace Corps Writers. In this newsletter and on our website they have, for twenty-five years, been promoting the careers and publications of novelists, non-fiction writers, and poets who have written about their Peace Corps experiences. Here are poems by Tom Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64);Edward Mycue (Ghana 1961);Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1966-68)] A Water Girl In Blue There’s a world of purpose In your going for water. A simple thing done So recounts the measureless Gallons of time. I call you But from this distance Isn’t there a world Of water between us. Tom Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64) Kwami and Anwar the Magnificent The man who freed without flow of blood, Kwami Nkrfru, once a philosopher, altarboy, and Anwar Retecki, called . . .

Talking to Eleanor Stanford (Cape Verde 1998-2000) Author of História, História As Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) sums up in her review on our site last, “Eleanor Stanford is a marvelous writer; she’s earned her place among the very best in the canon of Peace Corps writers, indeed a high honor.” Where did you serve, Ellie? I was in Fogo, Cape Verde as a TESL teacher. Did you travel much in the rest of Africa? No, not really. I was in Senegal briefly, but mostly I was Cape Verde. Where are you from in the States? The Philadelphia area, though I went to school at New College of Florida in Sarasota. What got you into the Peace Corps? I wanted to travel. I wanted an adventure. But mostly I hoped that there was something I could to benefit other people in some way. When did you decide to write a book . . .

Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71) is back with a new novel. This is Tom’s first novel in seven years.  At the heart of this book is a love triangle: two men, one woman, all of them writers. The first chapters are set in the mid-eighties in New York City. At Columbia, Ben forms a bond with his macho friend, Hank. Their bond is deep and ostensibly formed around their love of writing. But they soon find out their love is more than literary. As C.S Lewis says, friendship is homosexual. Hank is straight, though, on the Kinsey scale a zero, which means no men. Ben is a five, which means an occasional woman. But both are artists, and this affection between them is a force. How do you measure love? The second part of the book, almost a decade later, takes place in Portland, Oregon.  A now-ill Ben falls for Ruth, . . .

[In April, 1989 Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64) and I published the first issue of RPCV Writers. In that short four page newsletter I wrote our Reasons for Being — “There isn’t really one good reason to publish this newsletter. Putting that aside, I’m going to do it anyway.” I was wrong. There are many good reasons for writing about Peace Corps writers. If for no other reason than to announce to the world the books being published about the Peace Corps experience, and to network all of us  together. In that first issue I wrote the following essay about two of the best Peace Corps writers, two women. Here again (for the sake of history, and to bring new PCVs up to date, is that short essay.] • Two Women Writers by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) THE NEXT TIME someone asks, “What was the Peace Corps like?” hand them . . .

Big Charlene’s Weight-Loss Supper Club and Taxi Dancing: A Twisting Creek Mystery By R J Huddy (Morocco 1981-83) A Peace Corps Writers Book, $12.95; Kindle $ 2.99 254 pages 2014 Reviewed by Richard Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64) Here’s a charmer of a sort-of-mystery by a talented yarn-spinner who is a pleasure to spend 254 pages with.  I say “sort of” mystery because in the final chapters Huddy starts pulling characters out of thin air in order to duct-tape his narrative in place, and because one big question—was the Farley-parents botulism poisoning accidental or intentional?—is never really answered.  I don’t know what the plural of deus ex machina is, but Huddy could have used at least one more. Huddy’s considerable appeal is in his droll, companionable voice and his Preston Sturgess-like cast of small town odd and not-so-oddballs in Twisting Creek, Kentucky.  Accomplished chef Bradley Michaels lands in this remote burg after . . .

THE PEACE CORPS WRITERS’ MARIA THOMAS FICTION AWARD is named after the novelist Maria Thomas [Roberta Worrick (Ethiopia 1971–73)] who was the author of a well-reviewed novel, Antonia Saw the Oryx First,  and two collections of short stories — Come to Africa and Save Your Marriage and Other Stories and African Visas: A Novella and Stories — all set in Africa. Roberta and Tom Worrick were married with a young son when they went to Ethiopia as a married couple with the Peace Corps. After their tour, they continued to live and work in Africa. In addition to her life as a wife, mother, and PCV, Roberta Worrick was a wonderful writer. Her stories appeared in Redbook, Story and The New Yorker. She was a Wallace E. Stegner Fellow and received an Overseas Press Club’s commendation for reportage in Harper’s. She was coming into her own as a literary figure . . .

  Letters From Alfonso: Learning to Listen By Earl Kessler (Colombia 1965-68) Terra Nova Books, Santa Fe, New Mexico $13.04 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) 245 pages October, 2013 Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66) • Earl was a third year Peace Corps Volunteer, with energy to make changes in the world and in his life. A basic Community Development Volunteer, he was first assigned to the Colombian Department of Huila were the Violencia was in full swing. Letters from Alfonso does not cover much about his first two years, though the experience comes with him when he is assigned to a new community near Cartagena on the north coast of Colombia. He tells us that as a Community Development Volunteer he knew better to wait and get to know the community, to listen. He makes a point that most NGO’s (Non-Governmental  Organizations) and Multi National agencies fail to see and understand…listen . . .

The Glory of the Kings By Dan Close (Ethiopia 1965-67) Tamarac Press $19.95 (paperback) 401 pages 2013 Reviewed by Phillip LeBel (Ethiopia 1965-67) Even if one has never been to Ethiopia, one can learn much by reading Dan Close’s historical novel, The Glory of the Kings.  For those who have, much could still be learned by his careful weaving together of various sources to give us a vivid picture of how Adwa was so important to Ethiopia’s future and a key to understanding the present dynamics of society in the Horn of Africa. Author of several previous books [1], Dan Close has put his knowledge of the 1896 Battle of Adwa into a compelling fictional narrative.  Drawing on Ethiopia’s official history, the Kebra Negast, from which the title of his book is derived, he weaves together many known details of the battle with characters drawn from his personal experience in . . .

Kay, where did you serve in the Peace Corps? I was in Peace Corps in Medellin, Colombia from 1962-64 as part of an urban community development project. Did you join right after college? Yes, I grew up in Vandergrift, that’s a small town in western Pennsylvania and went to Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA. And you joined because of Kennedy? Not only was Kennedy’s call to service resonating with me, I was intrigued with the idea of living and working in a foreign country. It was an opportunity to explore the world as well as perhaps make a contribution in a developing country. Tell us a story or two from your Peace Corps tour. Ones that sum up your experience. I have two stories. One is about our Country Director, Chris Sheldon. He was admired and appreciated by all PCVs in Colombia. His pre-Peace Corps experience has been detailed in the movie . . .

Wanderlust Satisfied is the story of Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia 1962–64), one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers, and her  personal search through her two years of service, and how that experience changed everything about the rest of her life. Like so many Volunteers, she determined to follow her own ideals and dreams and unlearn the “Shoulds” and “Have-tos” she had been assigned by society. Kay was reared in a small town in western Pennsylvania, in the 1950s, during simpler times when a long distance telephone call was a big deal, and television sets displayed only three channels — all of them featuring stories about the Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev, and the Berlin Wall on the evening news. At the same time our country was caught in the struggle for basic civil rights for all peoples as Martin Luther King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference worked to register voters . . .

Iracema’s Footprint (Peace Corps novel) by Bernard F. Blanche (Brazil 1965–67) Eloquest Books $21.95 460 pages April 2010 Reviewed by Deidre Swesnik (Mali 1996-98) Think Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets John Grisham. Throw in a touch of John Wayne and you’ve got yourself Iracema’s Footprint. Iracema is both the name of an Amazon warrior and the name of the village at the center of the book.  Like the villagers who spend every night in the town square circling round and round the towering statue of Iracema, the main characters swirl around in a current of dizzying misunderstanding throughout the story. At the beginning of the book, we arrive in the village of Iracema on a bus with Marcus. He’s a twenty-something community health worker from Sao Paolo going to this remote town in Brazil’s Northeast region. Soon after his arrival, he meets Ben, the local Peace Corps Volunteer. The metropolitan Paulista . . .

Where were you a PCV and what were your years and assignment? I was a PCV in Liberia I from 1962 to 1964, teaching junior high and high school social studies at Suehn Industrial Academy, a mission boarding school run by African American missionaries. Tell us a little about your background. I grew up in Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and got my BA in History at the College of Wooster, also in Ohio. I got my MA in History and African Studies at Michigan State after my Peace Corps service and my PhD in Humanities Education at Ohio State after our tours in Sierra Leone and Fiji where my husband Jack was Associate and then Peace Corps Director and where I taught in teacher training colleges. You joined the Peace Corps with your husband? Well, yes, my future husband. We applied in March 1961 when we, Jack and . . .

Caminata, A Journey By Lori DiPrete Brown (Honduras 1983-85) Global Reflections Press $10.50 (paperback); $3.99 (Kindle) 227 pages 2013 Reviewed by Dennis Harrison-Noonan (Costa Rica 1978-80) In her first published work of fiction, Caminata, A Journey Lori DiPrete Brown tells the story Beth Pellegrino and her first year after college living and  working with Mother Maria and the Sister of the Living Cross in an orphanage in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Her story begins on the day she arrives in Honduras.  We meet the girls of the house where she will serve as their encargada. We are introduced to Luz, Felicia, Rosa and Vera, 4 teenage girls whose journey to find their roots will engage Beth in her own pilgrimage of faith and personal discovery. The author is thorough in offering answers to questions that we as curious readers have concerning Beth’s decision to leave her college love, Jake, her comfortable lifestyle . . .

Rowland Scherman was the first Peace Corps photographer. He started in 1961 at the agency and he traveled the world. Rowland helped establish the image that the world had (and has) of what the Peace Corps is, and who we are as PCVs. A book of his work, with his running narrative, has just been published. It is entitled, TIMELESS Photography of Rowland Scherman and the forward is by Judy Collins. It was published by Peter E. Randall for $29.95. You can find it at www.PERpublisher.com. In the book Rowland talks about how he got a job with the Peace Corps. This was in March 1961. Like so many others, I was thrilled by JFK’s inaugural speech. I wasn’t a “professional” photographer, really. I had been a studio assistant for a fashion guy, and I made a few dollars doing portraits “on location” on the streets of New York City. . . .