Peace Corps writers

Mark Brazaitis( Guatemala 1991-93)  Director of Creative Writing at West Virginia University has won that university’s 2010  Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award.  This award includes $5,000 and recognition at the University Honors Convocation. Mark has published four award-winning books, including The Other Language, winner of the 2008 ABZ Poetry Prize and An American Affair, winner of the 2004 George Garrett Fiction Prize, and the novel Steal My Heart which won the 2001 Maria Thomas Fiction Award from PeaceCorpsWriters. His work, including 40 short stories, 50 poems and numerous essays, has been published in a wide range of prominent literary magazines. He has also written pieces for top newspapers and was the screenwriter for the award-winning Peace Corps documentary, “How Far Are You Willing to Go to Make a Difference?” Mark also worked parttime as a writer for the New York Recruitment Office after earning his masters in Ohio. A recipient of the . . .

Reviewer Jan Worth-Nelson is the author of Night Blind — a Peace Corps novel. Her most recent publication, “Ordinary Dirt,” was part of a Driftwood special issue featuring poems of exactly 100 words. Her works of more than 100 words — essays, fiction, poems and reviews — have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times,  Detroit Free Press, East Village Magazine, Witness, Controlled Burn, Blaze, Dunes Review, Fourth Genre and others.  Her manuscript-in-progress is Lost at Angels Gate, a collection of poems attempting to capture her dual life in Flint and Los Angeles. She teaches writing at the University of Michigan/Flint. • Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso, 1975-77) February, 2010 368 pp. $15.00 Reviewed by Jan Worth-Nelson (Tonga 1976–78) In the past few years I’ve reviewed a number of books by RPCVs whose stories delivered compelling drama, but whose writing left something to be . . .

Kathleen Coskran, writer and teacher, has appeared in several anthologies and her collection of short stories, The High Price of Everything, won a Minnesota Book Award as did Tanzania on Tuesday: Writing by American Women Abroad which she co-edited. She is the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships and residencies including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Bush Artist’s Fellowship, and two grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. • Tenderfoot by Mary E. Trimble (The Gambia 1979-81) Treble Heart Books, $13.50 289 Pages January 2010 Reviewed by Kathleen Coskran (Ethiopia 1965–67) Tenderfoot is set on a ranch in western Washington during the days leading up to the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Author Mary E. Trimble certainly knows the terrain and the language of ranching and riding, and the reader takes pleasure in learning how to saddle a horse, the unforeseen perils of crossing a muddy creek on . . .

Reviewer Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) is an anthropologist, writer and magazine editor. Besides numerous articles in the academic and popular press, he has published five books including two biographies, Against the Current: The Life of Lain Singh Bangdel-Writer, Painter and Art Historian of Nepal (Orchid Press 2004), and Moran of Kathmandu: Priest, Educator and Ham Radio ‘Voice of the Himalayas’ (Orchid Press, 1997; rev. ed. in press, 2010). His next book, Discovering the Big Dogs of Tibet and the Himalayas (in press, 2010), combines memoir and essay. An anthology of his creative nonfiction is also forthcoming. Don writes from his home in Vancouver, Washington (near Portland, Oregon), when he’s not off trekking in the Himalayas. • South Pacific Survivor in Samoa by Kevin Daley (Samoa 1986–89) Boston: Novels Plus $16.95 435 pages January 2010 Reviewed by Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) If you like intricately plotted political thrillers, in exotic cultural settings, this book . . .

Jack Niedenthal is the Trust Liaison for the People of Bikini Atoll.  He has lived in the Marshall Islands for almost 30 years.  His wife is a Bikinian islander, they have 5 children and one grandchild.  He is the author of one book, For the Good of Mankind:  An Oral History of the People of Bikini Atoll and their Islands, and is the director/writer/producer of 2 full-length feature films in the Marshallese language, Ña Noniep and Yokwe Bartowe. http://www.bikiniatoll.com/host.html  Jack Niedenthal (Marshall Island 1981-84) When an ex-Peace Corps Volunteer sets out to write a novel based on his or her Third World experiences they are faced with some perplexing artistic and humanistic challenges:  How does one describe a tremendously unique series of events from ones own life so that others might participate in those feelings and understand those encounters, and moreover, translate, interpret, and describe a strangely foreign culture well . . .

Reviewer David A. Taylor is the author of three books, including Ginseng, the Divine Root, winner of the 2007 Peace Corps Writers Award for Travel Writing, and Success: Stories, a fiction collection finalist in the Library of Virginia’s 2009 Literary Awards. His recent book is Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America, selected as a Best Book of 2009 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He wrote and co-produced a documentary film of Soul of a People, nominated for a 2010 Writers’ Guild award. Here David reviews Toby Lester’s The Fourth Part of the World • The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America Its Name by Toby Lester (Yemen 1988–90) Free Press $30.00 2009 Reviewed by David A. Taylor (Mauritania 1983–85) In The Fourth Part of the World, Toby Lester (Yemen . . .

It is time to nominate your favorite Peace Corps book published in 2009. Send your nomination(s) to John Coyne at: jpcoyne@cnr.edu. You may nominate your own book; books written by friends; books written by total strangers. The books can be about the Peace Corps or on any topic. However, the books must have been published in 2009. The awards will be announced this coming July. Thank you for nominating your favorite book(s) written by a PCV, RPCV or Peace Corps Staff. When sending in your nomination, please cite for what prize, and give the full name of the book, the full name of the author, plus the country and years when the RPCV served. These are the only  books nominated so far. Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award Heat, Sand, and Friends by Allen W. Fletcher (Senegal 1969–71) First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria Eve Brown (Ecuador 1988) Maria Thomas Fiction Award Islands . . .

Peter Hessler (China 1996–98) and his wife, Leslie T. Chang, will be speaking on the University of San Francisco Campus on Tuesday, February 23.  Peter will be discussing his new books, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, together with Leslie talking about Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, now out in paperback. The discussion will start at 5:45 in USF Lone Mountain Campus Room 100, (2800 Turk Blvd between Masonic and Parker.) The event is free and open to the public. For information and a reservation, call (415) 422-6357,  and tell Peter you’re a PCV…also buy the book. It is terrific! For those of  you who are new to Peter Hessler, he was was the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and a contributor to National Geographic.  Previously he had written for the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal. . . .

Out this month is Matt Davis’s (Mongolia 2000–02) memoir of Mongolia, When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter’s Tale. In a cover blurb Peter Hessler (China 1996–98) writes, “Matthew Davis’s portrait of Mongolia is riveting, insightful, and deeply honest.” Matt received his MFA from the University of Iowa’s Writing Program (other fine RPCV writers who graduated from this program are Richard Wiley (Korea 1967–69), Phil Damon (Ethiopia 1963–65), Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975–76), and John Givens (Korea 1967–69). At Iowa Matt was an Arts Fellow, a writer-in-residence at the Museum of Art, and a postgraduate Writing Fellow. Today Matt is a fellow and student at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. On June 9, 2009 Peace Corps Worldwide published an interview I did with Matt about his book.  In the interview I asked Matt what other Peace Corps memoirs he had read and he replied, “Well, I’ve read Peter Hessler; George Packer; Tom Bissell; Sarah . . .

Reviewer Mark Brazaitis is the author of three books of fiction, including The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala, winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award, and Steal My Heart, a novel that won the Maria Thomas Fiction Award given by Peace Corps Writers. His latest book is The Other Language: Poems, winner of the 2008 ABZ Poetry Prize. His short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, The Sun, Witness, Notre Dame Review, Confrontation, and elsewhere. • Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories by Cynthia Morrison Phoel (Bulgaria 1994–96) Southern Methodist University Press June 2010 208 pages $22.50 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991–93) Good fiction works from the inside out. Yes, The Sun Also Rises is a novel about post-World War I Paris, with a little Spanish bullfighting thrown in, but it’s essentially and vividly the story of a man (Jake Barnes) who loves a woman (Lady Brett Ashley) who . . .

Born in Manhattan, reviewer Ian Kreisberg is older than MTV but younger than Etch-A-Sketch, making him contemporary with Lite-Brite. Like his contemporary, Ian exists to entertain others; a skill he has been honing for over 2 decades. Ian is a calligrapher, graphic designer, comedian, and amateur maker of comics. He lectures on the subject of comics as a medium at colleges and art galleries. While he has never been in the  Peace Corps, his best friends have! And to prove that he could be a PCV, he spends time with friends, plays punk ukulele, reads comics, and tries desperately to keep track of his ideas. To get him ready  to serve, I asked if he would review Jesse Lonergan’s (Turkmenistan 2005-07) graphic novel. • Joe and Azat by Jesse Lonergan (Turkmenistan 2005–07) ComicsLit, November 2009 95 pages $10.95 Reviewed by Ian Kreisberg Before I praise Jesse Lonergan for the use . . .

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler (China 1996–98) Harper’s 448 pages February 2010 $27.99 • Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975–77) Pocket 368 pages February 2010 $15.00 • Poison of Love: Are We Frying Our Children’s Brains (novel) by Ruth Moss (Kazakhstan 1996–98) Eloquent Books 250 pages January 2010 $14.95 • A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta by Paul Theroux (Malawai 1963–65) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 288 pages February 2010 $26.00 • Tiptoe Through the Tombstones: Oakhill Cemetery, Vol. 1 by Ghlee E. Woodworth (Comoros Islands 1991–93); edited by Jane Uscilka Self-Published 240 pages July 2009 $35.00

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory is Peter Hessler’s (China 1996-98) third book on his host Peace Corps country. It is being published on Tuesday, February 9. Peter, who went to China first as a Rhodes Scholar, then returned as a PCV, has lived on and off, mostly on, in China for over a decade. In the summer of 2001 he acquired a Chinese driver’s license and took his first road trip across the north of the country, following the route of the Great Wall and camping along the way. Peter made two such journeys, one in the spring and one in the autumn; he traveled over 7,436 miles and went all the way to the Tibetan Plateau. The second part of the book is focus on a family north of Beijing that has shifted from farming to business after their local road is paved. The third section . . .

It is time to nominate your favorite Peace Corps book published in 2009. Send your nomination(s) to John Coyne at: jpcoyne@cnr.edu. You may nominate your own book; books written by friends; books written by total strangers. The books can be about the Peace Corps or on any topic. However, the books must have been published in 2009. The awards will be announced this coming July. Thank you for nominating your favorite book written by a PCV, RPCV or Peace Corps Staff. Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award First given in 1990, the Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award was named to honor Paul Cowan, a Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Ecuador. Cowan wrote The Making of An Un-American about his experiences as a Volunteer in Latin America in the sixties. A longtime activist and political writer for The Village Voice, Cowan died of leukemia in 1988. Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Maria Thomas Fiction . . .

Using the unlikely topic of tombstones, Ghlee Woodworth, who spent some 13 years with the Peace Corps as a PCV in the Comoros Islands, and then as a Peace Corps Trainer for projects in Namibia, Swaziland, Niger, Bulgaria, Moldova, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Bangladesh, traveling to a total of 45 countries before coming home to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where she pieced together a picture of 19th-century Newburyport through the stories of 80 people laid to rest in the Oak Hill Cemetery. And this is only her first volume. Tiptoe Through the Tombstones, which is self published, recently was named runner-up in the Biography/Autobiography category for the 2009 Book of the Year at the New England Book Festival (beating out the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s book, True Compass). It tells the stories of some of Newburyport’s 19th-century founders: ship captains, entrepreneurs and political leaders. “It takes many citizens to build a community, and some of the people I’ve written about were . . .