Peace Corps writers

The Unofficial Peace Corps Handbook by Travis Hellstrom (Mongolia 2008–11) Advance Humanity Publishing 2010 234 pages $15.95 paperback Review by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-77) HELLSTROM’S GUIDE IS OF THE MYSTICAL GENRE, much like Zen In the Art of Archery, for this is a book about acceptance. Unlike recent guides which outline application, training, service and homecoming, this book offers very few lists. It offers comfort. “The happiest Peace Corps Volunteers are the ones who make peace,” explains the author. Be forewarned that if you are concerned about our voracious appetite for paper and the disappearance of forests, the format might disturb you: it contains 97 blank pages (more than one third of the book). The blank pages are for volunteers to write on. Of the pages with print, many contain less than 20 lines like a poetry book. I imagine that the author’s intent is akin to poetry — . . .

Lullaby for the Rain Girl by Christopher Conlon (Botswana 1988–90) Dark Regions Press, 2012 $45.00 341 pages Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) A GHOSTLY GIRL STANDS IN THE DRIVING RAIN without getting wet, facing a mist-shrouded clock tower whose hands are stuck at 4:20. Her mother jumped from that tower long ago, when she, the girl, was a mere blastocyst in her mother’s womb. Many years later she appears as a zombie-like being to her father, who’s ironically named Benjamin Fall. She tries to explain her presence. People like me are not people . . . but whatever we are we’re not ghosts. We’re not spirits. We’re fragments. Partials. Incompletions. If you can love me . . . really love me . . . I might be able to become complete. Ben had somehow conjured her through his own despair and need. He is a high school teacher . . .

Terrence McCoy (Cambodia 2009-11) is, I think, the first RPCV to publish an Amazon Kindle Single. It is the story of how China is trying to buy Cambodia and one woman’s quest to stop it. Called, The Playground, the e-book is  ’36-pages’ long (sells for $1.99) and McCoy mentions the Peace Corps several times. Here’s a quick summary: We’ve heard of China’s buying sprees. That it’s plowed billions of dollars into some of the poorest nations in the world. But the story we don’t know is what this money means for the people there. In Cambodia, the cost has been devastating. More than 700,000 people have lost their homes – others their lives – while China buys the former killing fields for resorts, hotels, and exclusive residences. And as this country of genocide descends into another era of chaos and violence, some whisper it’s the second coming of Pol Pot. But one woman . . .

The regional premiere of “Gruesome Playground Injuries” by Cleveland Heights native Rajiv Joseph will be April 27 at Ensemble Theatre at 8 p.m. This play opened last January on Second Stage in New York City. In “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” childhood friends Kayleen and Doug find their lives intersecting as they compare the scars and physical calamities that keep drawing them together. Joseph today is a writer on Showtime’s current season of the drama “Nurse Jackie,” has won numerous awards, including being a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2010. Still, Joseph, who moved to Cleveland Heights when he was four says he is “amazingly excited” to see his work produced where he grew up. “I had works produced all over the world before I was able to do something in Cleveland,” said Joseph.   Joseph says the play is “about a relationship, a friendship. It’s a love story about people who . . .

No Senator’s Son by RJ Huddy has just been published by Peace Corps Writers Books. RJ Huddy is the pen name of  Bob Cochrane who was a PCV in Errachidia, Morocco from 1981-83.  This novel–No Senator’s Son–is about a young historian who decides to pursue his father’s dream for him and run for Congress. To accomplish this he must turn his back on his profession and on the woman he loves. People don’t vote for a man who speaks openly of historical events such as the Palestinian diaspora, and they don’t vote for a man with a Palestinian wife. So for nearly thirty years he hides his views on the Middle East, and his love for the beautiful Aziza Hatoum, choosing instead to lead a deteriorating, toxic life as a Kentucky Congressman. His squandered love has gained him nothing–nothing except the chance to run for president. Nothing except the chance to go for broke, with . . .

The Farther Shore by Rob Davidson (Eastern Caribbean 1990–92) Bear Star Press 158 pages $16.00 (paperback) 2012 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) IF YOU ASK UNDERGRADUATES to name a modern short story writer they like, they might say (if they don’t say “Stephen King” or, forgetting what “modern” means, “Edgar Allan Poe”) “Raymond Carver,” although Carver died in 1988. There’s a good reason why: Carver’s stories about working class men and women in crisis are as elegant as they are spare. To compress so much emotion, so much complex psychology, so much life into such narrow borders is a wonder. So it’s no wonder Carver continues to have devotees — and imitators. If you’re an American short story writer and you haven’t been influenced, at least a little, by Carver, well, poor you. Most of the stories in Rob Davidson’s new collection The Farther Shore share with Carver’s tales . . .

No Senator’s Son by R.J. Huddy (Morocco 1981–82) Peace Corps Writers 380 pages $17.50 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) 2011 Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975–77) FANS OF HARD-BOILED CRIME a la James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice) and political thrillers a la Jeffrey Archer (Kane and Abel) should make room on your bookshelves for R.J. Huddy’s third novel. The book follows an obscure Kentucky Congressman and his sons from 1959 until the 1990s. The author uses family tension to lay out a story about the Palestine problem and in so doing, simultaneously explores our government’s role in the Middle East from the time of FDR. The Congressman longs to create a family political dynasty but his youngest son volunteers for the armed forces rather than submit. He is killed in Vietnam. The older son studies at Georgetown, then in Beirut when it was still considered a Paris of . . .

Job Title:Writer/Editor Agency:Peace Corps Job Announcement Number:DPC12-A0096-KC SALARY RANGE: $65,840.00 to $96,689.00 / Per Year OPEN PERIOD: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 to Tuesday, May 01, 2012 SERIES & GRADE: FP-1082-04 POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time – Term PROMOTION POTENTIAL: 04 DUTY LOCATIONS: 1 vacancy(s) in the following locations: Washington, Dist of Columbia WHO MAY BE CONSIDERED: United States Citizens JOB SUMMARY: Applications for this position are being processed through an on-line applicant assessment system that has been specifically configured for Peace Corps applicants. Even if you have already developed a resume in USAJOBS, you will need to access this on-line system to complete the application process. To obtain information about this position and TO APPLY, please click on https://www.avuecentral.com/casting/aiportal/control/toVacancy?referenceCode=QCRVC. KEY REQUIREMENTS See Other Information. DUTIES: Back to top Provides an initial review of specialized products to ensure that they meet approved editorial standards of objectivity, style, and manner of presentation. Recommends . . .

The Perennial Wanderer: An American in the World by Steven D. Orr (Panama 1964-66) Publish America 438 pages $6.95 (paperback), $6.60 (Kindle) 2010 Reviewed by David H. Day (Kenya 1965–66; India 1967–68) READERS OF STEVEN ORR’S DENSE FARRAGO of his Peace Corps service, global travels, military tours, and work-assignments-both long-term and short-in more than forty countries, should outfit themselves with flak jacket, crash-helmet, insect-repellant and  further shield themselves in an armored personnel carrier as they prepare to read The Perennial Wanderer. Orr has been knocked out, taken hostage, nearly asphyxiated by sulphuric fumes from Costa Rica’s Irazu volcano, narrowly avoided mortar shellings in Iraq, survived a near-fatal motorcycle crash, was wounded in Vietnam, and was rammed off the road by communists in Panama. When I finally made it to the end of this brisk, hefty narrative, I had to mop my brow and apply more anti-perspirant. My own two Peace . . .

Jason Boog (Guatemala 2000-02) on the Internet site GalleyCat published this short piece on April 5, 2012 giving all of us self-published writers inspriation. In May, the University of Chicago Press will publish A Naked Singularity, a 700-page debut novel that Sergio De La Pava self-published in 2008 through Xlibris. The story behind the book deal may inspire more literary authors to self-publish. In an email, Chicago Press promotions director Levi Stahl recounted how he discovered the self-published book: Late in 2010 I read a review by Scott Bryan Wilson in the Quarterly Conversation that said the novel was the best he’d read all year, maybe the best of the decade. And that praise, I discovered, had led to other critics picking it up-and they all agreed: it was brilliant, and it was a shame that no publisher had signed it. I got a copy, was blown away, and started rattling cages here at Chicago to . . .

Valley Views II — Four Plays Charles G. Blewitt (Grenada 1969-71) Uncle Wilson’s Productions 156 pages Paperback $15 2009 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) READING MORE LIKE SHORT STORIES, the four very brief plays in Charles G. Blewitt’s Valley Views II, all take place in the ‘Great Pocono Northeast’ of Northeastern Pennsylvania, which the author describes in his introduction as being populated by, “…first, second, or third generation descendants of ancestors who had literally been dropped off a bus or a train because they either had relatives living locally or they just didn’t have the fare to go farther.” That said, the people in these plays are familiar to any of us who live in smaller urban areas where socio economic groups and races live uncomfortably side by side. Using the framework of counseling in two of the plays, Blewitt mines those divides for his earnest . . .

Valley Views 2: Four Plays by Charles G. Blewitt (Grenada 1969–71) West Wyoming, PA: Uncle Wilson’s Production $ 15.00 156 pages 2009 • Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership For A Multiculural Age by Juana Bordas (Chile 1964–66) Second Edition, Updated and Expanded Berrett-Koehler Publishers $ 22.95 (paperback) 232 pages 2012 • Blaming Japhy Rider: Memoir of a Dharma Bum Who Survived by Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. (Togo 1978) Balboa Press $17.99 (paperback); $35.95 (hardcover) 248 pages 2012 • Lullaby for the Rain Girl by Christopher Conlon (Botswana 1988–90) Dark Regions Press $45.00 (hardcover) 341 pages 2012 • The Farther Shore (Short Stories) by Rob Davidson (Grenada 1990–92) Bear Star Press $16.00 (paperback); ; $7.69 (Kindle) 160 pages March 2012 • An Apricot Year (Novel) by Martha Egan (Venezuela 1967–69) Papalote Press $25.95 (hardcover) February, 2012 • Da Vinci’s Ghost by Toby Lester (Yemen 1983–85) Free Press $26.99 (hardcover); $17.99 (audio . . .

Robert Klein (Ghana 1961–63; 1974–75), recent winner of Peace Corps Writers Advancing the Mission Award for his book Being First, an informal history of early Peace Corps/Ghana, and founder of the RPCV Oral History Archival Project, passed away yesterday, April 4, 2012, at the age of 83, after complications arising from the implantation of a pacemaker. Klein was a tireless supporter of the agency and RPCVs across the country, and dedicated to having RPCVs tell their individual stories. He taught in Ghana for two years, a member of the first Peace Corps group to go overseas. He then joined the Peace Corps program staff, serving in Kenya and in Ghana, where he was the country director from 1966 to 1968. Returning to the U.S., Klein had a career as a journeyman educator working in New Frontier and other experimental settings in the areas of remedial education and English as a second language. In 1974 he returned to Ghana, . . .

About Face by Carole Howard (PC Staff Wife: Ivory Coast, Togo and Senegal 1972–75). Warwick Associates $13.99 (paperback); $2.99 (Kindle or Nook) 315 pages 2011 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) ABOUT FACE, A CLEVER TITLE THAT encompasses this book’s themes, profiles Ruth, a middle-aged successful executive in a cosmetics corporation. Ruth had been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal and frequently turns her face to the past reminiscing about innocent times. She is caught in the dilemma of fulfilling her talent on the business battlefield, while also longing to be of service to others. To add to her mid-life crisis, her husband, David, decides to retire from teaching. Ruth is confronted with the reality of aging, but is reluctant to step down from her  career platform. She incorporates her own conflicts on the aging process by launching a new cosmetic line for mature women. She is inspired by . . .

Michael Levy – author of Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion and recipient of Barnes & Noble’s 2011 Discover Great New Writers Award for Non-Fiction – will be speaking in Alabama at the Indian Springs School’s Visiting Writing Series on Thursday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the school’s John Badham Theater. Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion is a memoir about Levy’s experiences as a Jewish American serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in western China. He teaches at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, N.Y., and returns frequently to China to check in on his students and “visit the basketball courts where he momentarily attained stardom,” he says. Levy received the honor from Barnes & Noble at a ceremony in New York City on March 7. Now in its 21st year, the Barnes & Noble Discover program has featured upwards of 2,000 books, both . . .