Peace Corps writers

The Mind Dancing, poems by Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1962-64) with Art and Chinese calligraphy by Vivian Lu was published in 2009 by Plain View Press, Austin, Texas, (80 pages, $14.95) This collection of poems is reviewed here by John Givens (Korea 1967-69)  A problem faces the poet who wishes to write about a culture not his own: how fully should you occupy its experiences and expectations? You can accept the advantages and limitations of being an outsider and describe what you observe objectively; or you can attempt to mimic the stance of an insider in order to generate a “truer” sense of what it feels like to be there. When the culture in question is China’s, with its ancient and well-known poetic forms and traditions, the task becomes like that faced by a translator: phrases characteristic of one language won’t have equivalencies in another. You can try for a literal word-for-word  . . .

The other day The Boston Globe published an op-ed by one of my favorite RPCV writers, Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979-80), about one of my favorite non-RPCV writers, Ernest Hemingway, and one of my favorite towns, Key West. The op-ed was a must read for me but I couldn’t get it off the net, but then today it arrived in the mail, sent by a dear friend at Harvard. It came a day after Ernie’s 110 birthday, if anyone is still counting. Well, I am. Happy Birthday, Ernie! Roland Merullo had gone to Key West for the first time in his life. (God, this guy can go to Micronesia twenty plus years ago and it takes him this long to get around to Key West!) Anyway… Roland and his family visits Whithead Avenue and Ernie’s and Paulne’s (Pfeiffer) big rambling house that was a tourist site even when Hemingway lived in Florida. Now, with Ernie long . . .

Four Corners: The Vineyards and Wineries of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado by Starley Talbott (South Afirca 2001) Plainstar Press March 2009 182 pages $24.95 Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975–77 ) Starley Talbott’s new book Four Corners: The Vineyards and Wineries of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado is a prize for wine lovers and travelers. If you have ever considered a road trip around the Southwest, this is the book to take. After a fascinating introductory history about wine making in the Four Corners region, the author methodically studies thirty-five local wineries, offers beautiful color photographs, local history and valuable interviews. Using Talbott’s guide, one will not only know where wineries (and tasting rooms) are but will already know the proprietor’s names and stories. Armed with that knowledge, a traveler can expect better conversation and maybe a kind gesture. Good listeners (and readers) are always treated . . .

Hippie Chick by Joseph Monninger ((Upper Volta [now Burkina Faso] 1975-77) and published by FRONT STREET Press in Asheville, North Carolina is reviewed by W Tucker Clark PCV (Nepal 1967-70) When John Coyne said I have a former PCV’s book called Hippie Chick to review, I had visions of having an insight into my 1960’s former life. When it came–as a nice short 156 pages novel–I immediately started reading this tale of Lolly, a 15 year old ‘hippie daughter of a hippie woman,” who loves to sail her Boston Whaler solo in the Florida Keys. On one of these full moon later afternoons, Lolly hits an underwater obstacle and her boat is impaled and the mast breaks. She is knocked unconscious, and like the spat of movies about being shipwrecked, she is alone in the ocean, desperate and afraid of circling sharks. Hippie Chick reads like a true-life survival account, except Lolly has typical . . .

A few weeks ago, Phil Damon (Ethiopia 1963–65) wrote a review of Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity by Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1963–65) for Peace Corps Worldwide. Phil was nice enough to contact Robert again to interview him. Special thanks to both Robert and Phil, two RPCVs who are still doing their best. • Phil Damon: Well, Rob, since this interview is for PeaceCorpsWorldwide.org, maybe we should get this question taken care of right away: how did your Peace Corps experience shape your sensibility in directions that shaped your career and ultimately this admirable book? Robert Albritton: First I want to thank you for writing such a thoughtful review of my book, and for formulating the questions of this interview. There were three formative experiences that had particularly strong influences on my thinking as a young man. First, I studied at UC Berkeley and lived in the International . . .

Still ‘Ugly’ After All These Years By MICHAEL MEYER In the annals of misunderstood titles, a special place belongs to William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick’s novel “The Ugly American.” Today, the phrase is shorthand for our compatriots who wear tube tops to the Vatican or shout for Big Macs in Beijing. But as summer vacation season begins (at least for those who can still afford it), it’s worth recalling that the impolitic travelers in “The Ugly American” aren’t drunken backpackers or seniors sporting black socks, but the so-called educated elite of the diplomatic corps, whose insensitivity to local language and customs prompts observations like this: “The simple fact is, Mr. Ambassador, that average Americans, in their natural state, if you will excuse the phrase, are the best ambassadors a country can have,” a Filipino minister tells an American official. “They are not suspicious, they are eager to share their . . .

Publisher Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962–64) and I are pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Peace Corps Writers Awards for books published during 2008. We have added two new awards to the six we have given in the past — one for Best Peace Corps Memoir, and one for Best Book of Photography. The winning books and authors are: Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award The Last Days of Old Beijing Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed By Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) Walker & Company Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Baker’s Boy By Barry Kitterman (Belize 1975–77) Southern Methodist University Press Award for Best Travel Writing Travel Wise How to Be Safe, Savvy and Secure Abroad By Ray Leki (Nepal 1979-80; Staff: 1988–90; Pakistan 1990) Intercultural Press Award for Best Poetry Book The Book of Sleep By Eleanor Stanford (Cape Verde 1998–2000) Carnegie Mellon Press Award for . . .

In the Sunday’s Book Section  of The New York Times there is an essay on the book that ‘launched’ the Peace Corps: The Ugly American. This novel, written by William Lederer and Eugen Burdick in the late Fifties, stirred Kennedy and others in JFK’s administration into new international action. This essay in the NYTIMES on this infamous book is written by one of the China Gang of PCV writers, Michael Meyer (China 1995-97), author of The Last Days of Old Beijing. In his essay, Meyer writes, “The Peace Corps is not a panacea, but when it comes to projecting America’s values abroad, its spirit comes closest to what the fictional Homer Atkins advocated decades before that global symbol of a different kind of ugly Americanism, Homer Simpson, told his children: “You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”

To order any of these books click on their title or cover. Mosquito Conversations: More Stories from the Upper Peninsula by Lauri Anderson (Nigeria 1965–67) North Star Press of St. Cloud, June 2009 $14.95 Tunakumbuka (We Remember): Our Time in Tanzania as Peace Corps Volunteers by Harlan Bengtson (Tanzania 1965–67) PublishAmerica, March 2009 64 pages $16.95 Bread, Salt & Plum Brandy: A True Story of Love and Adventure in a Foreign Land by Lisa Fisher Cazacu (Romania 2002–04) and Rosemary Colgrove Aventine Press April 2009 224 pages $14.95 On My Own Now: Straight Talk from the Proverbs for Young Christian Women who Want to Remain Pure, Debt-free and Regret-free by Donna Lee Schillinger (Ecuador 1989-91) Quilldriver April Fool’s Day 2009 288 pages $14.95, audio book $9.95, e-book $4.95

Recently Claire Applewhite, author of The Wrong Side of Memphis, posed some questions to Janet Grace Riehl (Botswana 1972-73 & Ghana 1973-75). Riehl is the author of Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary, a self-published book of story poems, many of which center on her family. This interview appeared a few weeks ago in Jane Henderson’s Book Column in the St. Louis Post- Dispatch . Janet lives in southern Illinois, graduating from Alton High School in 1967, then earned a master’s degree in English from Southern Illinois University/Edwardsville and where she was co-editor of the poetry magazine, Sou’Wester. She lived and worked for five years in Ghana and Botswana with the Peace Corps and then the British World Friends (Quakers). She lived in California for a while before returning to Midwest. In this interview by Claire Applewhite, Janet sums up the various ways to get published today. What do you think it takes to get . . .

Let Them Eat Junk by Robert Albritton and published this year in the U.K. by Pluto Press and Canada by Arbeiter Ring [“left-wing politics with a rock-n- roll attitude”],  is reviewed by fellow Ethiopia 2 RPCV Philip Damon. It is an impressive review of an important book. • Let Them Eat Junk by Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1963–65) London, UK: Pluto Press; Winnipeg, Canada: Arbeiter Ring Publishing April, 2009 224 pages Reviewed by Philip Damon (Ethiopia 1963–65) To his credit, Rob Albritton never employs the tired cliché “a perfect storm” in his acid analysis of the world’s runaway food crisis. Instead, he coyly alludes in his title to the “callous indifference” of a much earlier elite of power and privilege, whose post-royalist inheritors he specifies in the subtitle: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity. Yet he could have applied the meteorological metaphor every bit as aptly, since with a planetary population . . .

Micronesia RPCV Roland Merullo’s The Italian Summer: Golf, Food and Family at Lake Como that was published by Touchstone earlier this year is reviewed here by Leita Kaldi Davis nee Bevacqua (Senegal 1993-96). You don’t even have to like golf, food, family or Italy to like this book. • The Italian Summer:  Golf, Food and Family at Lake Como by Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979–80) Touchstone/Simon & Schuster April 2009 272 pages $24.99 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) In The Italian Summer Roland Merullo takes his wife and two daughters to Lake Como for an idyllic vacation filled with enchanting landscapes, medieval cities, vivacious people, delectable wines and gluttonous meals. Roland, aka Orlando, also learns important lessons in relaxation that he needs not only to fully enjoy life, but to improve his golf game. I don’t golf and wouldn’t know the difference between a bogey and a birdie, but I thoroughly . . .

Allen W. Fletcher was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1969. He served in Senegal as a Communi ty Development Volunteer. Returning home, he earned a Master’s Degree in Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley (1984) and worked as a general contractor/designer/builder in Northern California. Recently he returned home and founded Worcester Publishing Ltd., publisher of several local newspapers and magazines. He is also an instructor at Boston Architectural College. His  “Peace Corps stories” are published in this beautiful edition by his company, Worcester Publishing, and Lawrence F. Lihosti (Honduras 1975-77) has given it a glowing review. Take a look! • Heat, Sand, and Friends by Allen W. Fletcher (Senegal 1969–71) Worcester Publishing Ltd. 2009 158 pages $15.00 Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975–77) Allen W. Fletcher has written and published an extraordinary account of his service and in so doing, bears witness. Rather than write . . .