Peace Corps writers

This article about David Mather (Chile 1968–70) was published in Vermont’s Valley News on Saturday, June 23, 2012. • Peace Corps Service Inspires Novel by Dan Mackie David Mather has always tried to leave space on his to-do list for adventure. The Lyme resident can spin tales of motorcycle trips in Central America, an Indiana Jones-style flight deep into the Brazilian interior through a storm (details included “rivers of vomit”), a summer aboard a Norwegian tramp freighter crossing the Pacific, and hitchhiking in North Africa. His life in Lyme has been something of an adventure, too. When he arrived there in the early ’70s, he built a cabin in the woods one mile up an abandoned town road. “First I built the cabin, and then I had to figure out how to make a living,” he said. He wasn’t entirely ready for what was ahead. “I was a flatlander, as . . .

This article was published first in New Orleans in The Lens, an on line investigative reporting site, on the 19th of June.  It was brought to my attention by Carol Scott (Ethiopia 1965–67). Thank you Carol for the heads up. Folwell Dunbar is a writer and educator now living in New Orleans, but he served in Ecuador from 1998 to 2002 where he raised sheep, trout, bees and guinea pigs. Since then he has worked as a teacher, coach, trainer and consultant. • Reset the hook by Folwell Dunbar (Ecuador 1998–02) THE FIRST LESSON I EVER TAUGHT was in Pachamama, Ecuador. I was a wet be­hind the ears Peace Corps Vol­un­teer, and it was my first charla, or work­shop. I was de­liv­er­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion on the im­por­tance of crop­ping sheep tails to a group of sea­soned campesinos, who ob­vi­ously knew far more about ovine man­age­ment than I ever would. They . . .

Vacancy Summary Peace Corps Writer-Editor, FP-1082-3 Announcement Number: DPC12-A0144-CC Application Deadline: 07/06/2012 Job Location: Washington,Dist of Columbia Open Date: 06/22/2012 Salary Range: Min: 81256.0 – Max: 119327.0 Location Notes: Pay Schedule: Annual Who May Apply: US Citizens Time Limit: Term Promotion Potential: 3 Number of Vacancies: 1 Work Schedule: Full Time Notes: Ten Reasons to Work for Peace Corps! (1) Voted in the top 4 “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” for small agencies in 2011, (2) the Peace Corps has a unique global mission. (3) Benefits include higher salary caps than the Federal standard with (4) quicker step increases. (5) Peace Corps employees earn non-competitive eligibility after 3 years of service and (6) have the chance to be selected for an annual Leadership Development Academy. (7) The working environment is highly flexible with alternative schedules, credit hours, teleworking. (8) There’s a Distinguished Speaker Series, and (9) work-life . . .

Over the weekend I read Paul Theroux’s latest book, The Lower River. This novel is his most direct use of his Peace Corps experience. Paul’s first three novels: Waldo, Fong and the Indians, and Girls at Play all were East Africa based, but not about the Peace Corps. Girls at Play, set at a girls’ school in western Kenya, has a ‘Peace Corps character,’ and unhappy, Midwest woman, as I recall. I believe this is the first use of a ‘Peace Corps character’ in a work of fiction. (Mary-Ann Tyrone Smith’s (Cameroon 1965-67) Lament for a Silver-Eyed Woman published in 1987, would be the first novel about a Peace Corps Volunteers.) Later, in his collection of nonfiction pieces, Sunrise with Seamonsters, Paul republished a few of his essays that focused on the agency and Africa, and how he was kicked out of the corps. Theroux wrote a wonderful ‘peace corps short . . .

I Never Intended to Be Brave: A Woman’s Bicycle Journey Through Southern Africa by Heather Andersen (Lesotho 2001-03) and published by Windy City Publishers has won the Adventure category in the sixth annual National Indie Excellence Book Awards. Heather’s book was reviewed on our site. Check it out at: https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/review-i-never/ The competition is judged by independent book industry publishers, writers, editors, book cover designers and professional copywriters. They selected award winners and finalists based on overall excellence of presentation.      

If you had to boil down Jim McConkey’s book to a simple ‘X Meets Y’ premise, it would be “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” meets “Lost in Translation.” By that, we mean “To the Far Side of Planet Earth” is an introspective glimpse at McConkey’s time spent serving as a member of the Peace Corps, combining bits of anthropology, mythology, psychology and a good amount of humor as culture shock gives way to new perspective. McConkey aspired to be a writer since childhood, but made a few career stops on the way to work on a farm, wash dishes, pump gas, drive a school bus and deliver papers. After gaining a degree in journalism, McConkey joined the Peace Corps, and soon he found himself in India. His speaking engagement on “Understanding the Philosophy and Culture of India” today at Temple University’s Harrisburg Campus is part of a World . . .

A Writer Writes [Peace Corps Volunteers often have experiences that follow them throughout their lives. Such was the case with Habib Diatta, who came into Leita Kaldi’s life in 1993 to tell her he taught at a school with 800 students and no latrines! She helped him to find funding and develop the project himself, in collaboration with local villagers, to provide sanitary facilities for his students. Habib didn’t stop there. In his rural school with no electricity, he dreamed of providing computers and training to schools throughout Senegal. When he was recruited to a university in Indiana, he realized his dream, founding Wings for West Africa, a non-profit organization that ships computers to every corner of Senegal. Nearly twenty years after meeting Habib, Leita is compelled to share his story.] Wings for West Africa by Leita  Kaldi (Senegal 1993-96) “At our school we have eight hundred students and no . . .

Dodging Machetes: How I survived Forbidden Love, Bad Behavior and the Peace Corps in Fiji by Will Lutwick (Fiji 1968-70) Peace Corps Writers $15.95 paperback 2012 266 pages Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-77) MR. LUTWICK HAS SUCCEEDED in creating an entertaining and thought provoking Peace Corps memoir. This is a fine example of what a memoir can be for those willing to invest in writing rather than type-writing. Although ostensibly a love story, the author explores military conscription, discrimination and guilt. Written with episodic, fast paced chapters it is intriguing. Once I started, I could not stop and yet, found myself thinking about his story and its themes long after the highlighted passages began to fade. Twenty-two year old Lutwick arrived in Fiji in November, 1968, part of the third group of Volunteers. The program had begun only eleven months before, the same month that the tone of . . .

Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership For A Multiculural Age by Juana Bordas (Chile 1964–66) Berrett-Koehler Publishers [Second Edition, Updated and Expanded] $22.95 (paperback); $11.62 (Kindle) 232 pages 2012 Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964–66) I WAS PREPARED that Juana’s book would read like a text . . . so I got ready to prep myself like any good student. Wrong — from the first page this “text” read like a novel, excitement and adventure on every page . . . I stopped underlining her quotes with my yellow pen, and just started reading what felt like another beautiful novel from Isabel Allende, same colorful and intense style. Surely they must have been childhood friends! I began to see myself, and my Mexican heritage, as Juana opened doors for me to appreciate the beauty of who we are . . . a “text” of a different nature. There is more to . . .

[Charles Larson (Nigeria 1962-64) who has written some fine books on Africa,  is an African scholar himself, and now a Emeritus Professor of Literature at American University, in Washington, D.C. has published a very good review of Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) new novel The Lower River. It is in the weekend edition ( June 8-10, 2012) of  Counterpunch, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. The review is reprinted with Charles permission. You can reach Larson at clarson@american.edu.] Africa Distressed by Charles R. Larson (Nigeria 1962-64) Paul Theroux’s early novels (Fong and the Indians, Girls at Play and Jungle Lovers) drew on the writer’s years in the Peace Corps, in Malawi, where he began teaching in 1963. These works were generally comic, satiric, even hopeful-not the bleakness about Africa revealed in his most recent novel, The Lower River. When Ellis Hock, the main character in the latest work, contemplates . . .

Every morning when I wake up to make coffee I flip on Morning Joe and  wait for the failed congressman to stop yapping so I can see if new rioting has taken place in downtown Cairo, and find out what’s new in Peter Hessler’s (China 1996-98) world. Where’s Peter, I’m thinking, as I watch the rioting in Tahrir or Abbasiya. Peter, I know, lives within blocks of city central, and I know he is just a crazy enough RPCV to get close enough to the action to get into real trouble. Well, the new New Yorker (June 18, 2012) has him alive and well and reporting on the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and what it means for Egyptians and the rest of us. The long article (it wouldn’t be a New Yorker article if it wasn’t long) has Peter and his translator Mohamed calmly walking toward another demonstration in . . .

The Master Blaster by P.F. Kluge (Micronesia 1967–69) Overlook Press 302 pages $26.95 (hardback); $12.99 (Kindle) March 2012 Reviewed by Reilly Ridgell (Micronesia 1971–73) OF ALL THE RPCV WRITERS who have come out of Micronesia, P.F. Kluge is perhaps the most successful. He has had published by mainstream traditional publishers a total of nine novels and two non-fiction works. Most of the RPCV writers who get reviewed on this site are either self-published or published by small presses with scant resources for marketing. Kluge has had two of his writings made into movies. Real, Hollywood movies. I must admit, I envy his success. I had read two of his works before: The Day I Die: A Novel of Suspense [Bobbs-Merrill 1976] set mostly in Palau, and The Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia [Random House 1991], his Micronesia memoir prompted in part by the suicide of a Micronesian leader he . . .

The winners of the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards were announced on Monday night, June 4, 2012, during a sold-out gala ceremony hosted by comedienne Kate Clinton at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. RPCV writer Richard Lipez (Ethiopia 1962–64) writing at Richard Stevenson, won the Gay Mystery award for his novel Red White Black and Blue, published by MLR Press. Taking place the same week of Book Expo America — the book publishing industry’s largest annual gathering of booksellers, publishers, and others in the industry — the Lambda ceremony brought together over 400 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature. As “mastress” of ceremonies, Clinton treated the audience to her brand of topical, political comedy. She joked, “If you’re here to buy a Big Gulp or smoke a cigarette in a park . . . you’ll have to go to New Jersey.” Later she . . .

Da Vinci’s Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image by Toby Lester (Yemen 1988–90) Free Press $26.99 (hardback), $16.99 (Kindle) 230 pages 2012 Reviewed by Richard Lipez (Ethiopia 1962–64) TOBY LESTER’S DELIGHTFUL BOOK about Leonardo da Vinci reminds me of my mother-in-law. Barbara Wheaton is both a renowned professional food historian and an accomplished amateur art historian who, on a recent family trip to Paris, told the rest of us in her clear-headed and often witty way everything we needed to know about everything we saw, heard or tasted, but never more than we wanted to know. Like Barbara, Toby Lester is the best kind of traveling companion, especially when visiting places we’ve probably been to before, like Paris, or in Lester’s case ancient Rome and Renaissance Italy. Who would have thought that surprises about these places were still in store, or that there . . .