Peace Corps writers

Reviewer Tony D’Souza’s  new novel The Mule, will be released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt next year. His other novels, Whiteman and The Konkans, won many prizes including the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Maria Thomas Prize from Peace Corps Writers, and Florida gold and silver medals for fiction. Tony has contributed to The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, Outside, Granta, McSweeney’s, the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Fantasy, and has received an NEA, a Japan Friendship NEA, and a Guggenheim. He lives in Sarasota, FL, with his wife Jessyka and their two young children. Here he reviews Leita Kaldi’s memoir Roller Skating in the Desert. • Roller Skating in the Desert Leita Kaldi (Senegal 1993–96) PublishAmerica 2007 $24.95 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–02, Madagascar 2002–03) WHAT’S MOST ENJOYABLE about Roller Skating in the Desert, Leita Kaldi’s unique memoir about her three . . .

PEACE CORPS WRITERS is pleased to announce that In An Uncharted Country by Clifford Garstang  (South Korea 1976–78) has won the 2010 Maria Thomas Fiction Award for the outstanding fiction book published by a Peace Corps writer during 2009. Clifford will receive a framed certificate and a prize of $200. In An Uncharted Country showcases ordinary men and women in and around Rugglesville, Virginia, as they struggle to find places and identities in their families and the community. This collection of short stories is Garstang’s first published book, and it has also won the Independent Publisher’s IPPY Gold Medal this year for Best Fiction in the Mid Atlantic. Clifford Garstang grew up in the Midwest and received a BA from Northwestern University. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, he earned an MA in English and a JD, both from Indiana University, and practiced international law in Singapore, Chicago, and . . .

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell (Uzbekistan 1996-97) has just been published by Random House. Publishers Weekly ( in a starred review) called it “a scintillating meditation on the promise and discontents of video games.” In his book, Tom looks at not just his own passion for video games but also the games themselves. What separates good games from bad? Where do video games fit on the sliding scale of art? Keith Gessen, author of All the Sad Young Literary Men writes, “The last thing I ever thought I’d do in this life is read a book about video games. And yet Extra Lives is sharp, critical, very funny, and Tom Bissell’s description of killing zombies in the first iteration of Resident Evil is simply a tour de force.” Tom, who has also written Chasing the Sea; God Lives in St. Petersburg and Other Stories; and The Father of . . .

Darcy M. Meijer was a Peace Corps EFL teacher in Gabon, and has taught ESL for the past 25 years. She is also the editor of the Gabon Letter, the quarterly newsletter of the Friends of Gabon. Currently she is working in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, and spends cool summers in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Here she reviews RJ Huddy’s first novel, The Verse of the Sword. • The Verse of the Sword R J Huddy (Morocco 1981–83) XPat Fiction September 2009 456 pages $17.50 Reviewed by Darcy M. Meijer (Gabon 1982–84) THE VERSE OF THE SWORD, RJ Huddy’s first novel, is a thoroughly enjoyable read. The book is funny, informative, and engaging on many levels. It’s time someone wrote a literary novel about the Middle East that faces religious extremism in a human, thoughtful way. Verse opens in an Intensive Care Unit in Boston, where . . .

Reviewer Bryant Wieneke’s (Niger 1974-76) is the Assistant Dean for Policy in the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of a series of peace-oriented suspense novels that are available for $10 each through his own micro publishing company at Peace Rose Publishing. • Green Pearl Odyssey Reilly Ridgell (Micronesia 1971–73) Blue Ocean Press $16.95 468 pages February 2010 Reviewed by Bryant Wieneke’s (Niger 1974–76) IF YOU LIKE SUSPENSE NOVELS set in exotic places, this is a good one. Scott Taylor, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Micronesia, witnesses the murder of his wife and brother by Page 10 of Green Pearl Odyssey.  He exacts his revenge by Page 20. The remainder of the novel is devoted to the game of global hide-and-seek between Taylor and a crime kingpin obsessed with rubbing him out. Taylor’s odyssey begins in Majuro, the capital of . . .

Patrick Chura is associate professor of English at the University of Akron and author of Vital Contact: Downclassing Journeys in American Literature from Melville to Richard Wright. His second book, Thoreau the Land Surveyor, is forthcoming in 2010. He recently returned to Lithuania as a Fulbright lecturer. Here he reviews P.F. Kluge’s new novel that is coming out this September. • A Call from Jersey by P. F. Kluge (Micronesia 1967-69) Overlook Press 352 pages $25.95 September 2010 Reviewed by Patrick Chura (Lithuania 1992-94) IN A CALL FROM JERSEY, P. F. Kluge isn’t out to write an epic or a blockbuster. He’s trying instead for a quiet, emotionally intelligent book about sentiments real to all of us. The main characters in this thoughtful novel are Hans Greifinger, an aging German immigrant who came to the United States in 1928, and his Americanized son George Griffin, a baby boomer who is . . .

Torn in the South Pacific by Jeff Bronow (Fiji 1988–90) PublishAmerica $24.95 246 pages June 2010 • Henry Walters and Bernard Berenson: Collector and Connoisseur by Stanley Mazaroff (Philippines 1961–63) The John Hopkins University Press $40.00 248 pages June 2010 • Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories by Cynthia Morrison Phoel (Bulgaria 1994–96) Southern Methodist University press, $22.50 208  pages June 2010 • The Drums of Africa (Peace Corps Novel) by Tim Schell (Central African Republic 1978–79) Mammoth Books $15.95 247 pages 2007 • A Small Brown Dog with a Wet Pink Nose (Children K–3) by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (Tanzania 1989–90); illustrated byLinzie Hunter Little, Brown Books for Young Readers $16.99 32 pages January 2010 • The Ghost of Milagro Creek by Melanie Sumner  (Senegal 1988-90) Algonquin $13.95 264 pages June 2010 • Go Home Bones (Poems) by Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1964–66) Pudding House Chapbook Series $10.00 (to order jen@puddinghouse.com) 30 pages 2010 . . .

Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98) who lives and teaching writing in Taos, New Mexico, has written   How To Cook a Crocodile. It is the first book to be published by our new imprint, PeaceCorpsWriters. Bonnie, author of the memoir, Somewhere Child (Viking Press, 1981) decided at the age of  50, after a breast cancer scare, and ten years of physically exhausting catering work, to shut down her New York business and join the Peace Corps. “I was a health and nutrition Volunteer in Lastoursville, in the middle of the rainforest, and like so many PCV before me, I emerged from this experience having learned more than I taught.  Unlike other Peace Corps authors, though, I tell my tale in a new way:  as interconnecting essays with recipes.”  Bonnie goes on to say, “In 1942 – in the midst of war rationing, when many American households had reason to fear the wolf at the door – an opinionated, highbrow beauty from California published a . . .

Tony Zurlo understands a little about being a “farang” from his own experience as a “yang gui zi” (foreign devil) teaching in China (1990–91). He has published several books on nonwestern cultures and history, including books about China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. His newest books of poetry are now available: Go Home Bones published by Pudding House Publications, about the effects of war on families and society; and Dali’s Clock, Schrodinger’s Cat, and a Pair of Dice published by Big Table Publishing Co., about the chaos of life in this new age of quantum and string theory. • Farang by Peter Blair (Thailand 1975–78) Pittsburg: Autumn House Press, 2009. $14.95 65 pages Reviewed by Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1964–66) LIKE MOST PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS, Peter Blair had a passion for absorbing the culture of his host country. In Farang, a collection of thirty six poems, he offers a perceptive narrative in lyrical . . .

In January 2008 I received an email from Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) asking if I would get the word out about her books project.  I was happy to do so. Anything to help RPCV writers get published. Anything to help RPCVs tell their stories. Anything to fulfill the Third Goal of the Peace Corps. Jane’s plan was to publish four books of stories for the 50th anniversary. The four volumes-Africa and the Middle East; After the Cold War (focusing on Central Asia and Eastern Europe); Asia and the Pacific; Central America, South America and the Caribbean-would feature stories from past and present volunteers, staff and instructors. Even while I was ‘spreading the word’ I thought to myself: This is a crazy idea! Four books by RPCV writers? Where would she find the writers? Who would publish four books by Peace Corps writers? Well, once again Coyne is proven wrong! Travelers’ Tales/Solas House, Inc. will . . .

Myth and mythology Finally we come back to Gertrude Stein’s famous comment to Hemingway. “You are all a lost generation,” she told him. The truth is that Stein had heard her French garage owner speak of his young auto mechanics and their poor repair skills as “une génération perdue.”      All Gertrude Stein wanted was competent mechanics to repair her car but Hemingway, seizing the expression, as any good writer would, identified a literary movement and a new way of looking at the world.      Peace Corps writers do the same by bringing the world back home through their own writing. They have an understanding of parts of the world few Americans will ever know. And as PCVs they have a “way of looking at this world” that is new and fresh and insightful. Fulfilling the Third Goal of the Peace Corps means telling your tales at home.      So, see how far . . .

Marian Haley Beil and I are pleased to announce that Peace Corps Writers — one of the blog of Peace Corps Worldwide —  is launching a new line of books written by RPCVs. These books — fiction, non-fiction, travel, memoirs, poetry, etc. — will be published by CreateSpace, a well-known print-on-demand (POD) company that is , will carry the logo of the Peace Corps Writers imprint, and will be featured on our site and sold through Amazon.com. For your book to become part of this new publishing venture, your manuscript must first be submitted  to our editors for acceptance. Once that is accomplished, a fee of $150.00 will be charged that will cover the cost of a unique “Peace Corps Writers” ISBN number, rights to use the Peace Corps Writers imprint logo in the production of the book, and inclusion in this new line of books that will be promoted by our website, . . .

M. Susan Hundt-Bergan lives in Madison, WI, with her husband Hal. Susan is retired from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources where she was team leader for recycling. She is now a certified Lay Minister for the Diocese of Madison. She serves her parish, Blessed Sacrament, and the diocese in various ways, including coordinating the Catholic ministry at the Dane County Jail, a responsibility that takes her to the jail each Thursday night to worship and pray with incarcerated men and women.  She is blessed to be the mother of two and grandmother of three. Another joy and challenge is sharing ownership of a family farm with her ten brothers and sisters. • Faith, Interrupted, A Spiritual Journey by Eric Lax (Micronesia 1966–68) Alfred A. Knopf $26.00 288 pages April 2010 Reviewed by M. Susan Hundt-Bergan (Ethiopia 1966-68) IN THIS SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Eric Lax writes about his journey from a . . .

In the June issue of the publication BookPage there is a great review by Heather Seggel of  S.A. Bodeen (Tanzania 1989-90) [Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen] YA novel, The Gardener which we reviewed recently our website.www.http://old.peacecorpsworldwide.org/?s=Bodeen Seggel writes, “Author S.A.Bodeen has laced this sci-fi-tinged page-turner with thoughtful commentary on world hunger, sustainability, biology and biomedical ethics, plus several high-speed chases and a believable budding romance, and the whole thing works like a charm….I stayed up late to find out how it all ended, and stayed up after that because The Gardener raised so many timely and pointed questions.”

Travel Now, Write Later Anyone who has read The Sun Also Rises knows that this novel is also a wonderful travel book. Hemingway’s description of a bus trip to Spain is classic travel prose: “The road went along the summit of the Col and then dropped down, and the driver had to honk, and slow up, and turn out to avoid running into two donkeys that were sleeping in the road.” A trip like that in Spain in the 1920s is something most Volunteers can identify with today from their own overseas experiences. Paul Theroux, it is generally agreed, reinvented the art of travel writing with The Great Railway Bazaar, published in 1975. He returned the genre to the place it held when Mary Kingsley and Evelyn Waugh were crossing Africa and globe-trotting the world. Many Peace Corps writers have followed, most notably Mike Tidwell, Thurston Clarke, Jeffrey Tayler, Karen . . .