Korea – Peace Corps Worldwide

THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE by Clifford Garstang (Korea)

Nov 02 2023

The Last Bird of Paradise Black Rose Writing Clifford Garstang (South Korea 1976-77) February 2024 340 pages $6.99 (Kindle); $23.95 (Paperback). Can be pre-ordered. Two women, nearly a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives when they reluctantly leave their homelands. Arriving in Singapore, they find romance in a tropical paradise, but also find they haven’t left behind the dangers that caused them to flee. In the aftermath of 9/11 and haunted by the specter of terrorism, Aislinn Givens leaves her New York law practice and joins her husband in Southeast Asia when he takes a job there. Seeking to establish herself in a local law firm, Aislinn begins to understand the historic resentment of foreigners who have exploited the region for centuries. Learning about the turmoil of Singapore’s colonial period, she acquires several paintings done by an English artist during World War I that she believes are . . .

“Monadnock”

Oct 07 2023

A story by Giles Ryan (Korea) Here in New England, about forty of us, old friends, have come together again to mark the fifty years since we all first gathered for Peace Corps language training, a shared experience followed by another, our time in Korea as school teachers, after which we were never the same. Tolstoy long ago observed that there are only two kinds of stories — someone goes on a journey, and a stranger comes to town. All of us have done both. We all went on a journey long ago and far away, and then we spread out across Korea, each one of us a stranger come to town. The towns were all different and we each had our own experience, and we were all marked by it for the rest of our lives. We are so pleased to reconnect like this, making eye contact . . .

“Staying” by Giles Ryan (Korea)

Sep 14 2023

In the winter of 1970 I went to Korea, a country still recovering from a terrible war. The Peace Corps sent me there to teach English at a middle school in the central mountains, near the DMZ (demilitarized zone), where a fragile armistice was not always honored. The winter was colder than what I had known, learning the language was difficult, and in those early months I was often ill. But the true challenge was witnessing a kind of cruelty that most Americans today would call child abuse. For my part, I had been raised in an Irish Catholic environment, so I was no stranger to corporal punishment; indeed, I had my own vivid experience, both at home and in school. But nothing prepared me for what I saw at my school in Chunchon, and I reached a moment when I doubted I could stay. The students were . . .

Richard Wiley (Korea) to judge Six-Word Memoir of Peace Corps

Aug 07 2023

Deadline for submitting ‘memoir’ is Tuesday, August 8th. Judging your Peace Corps focus stories will be…… Richard Wiley, novelist and short story, first novel, Soldiers in Hiding won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He has published five other novels and a number of short stories. He is the 2023 Winner of Peace Corps Writers’ Award as “Writer of the Year”. Wiley holds a B.A. from the University of Puget Sound and an M.A. from Sophia University in Tokyo; he earned his MFA in creative writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Richard was a PCV in Korea (1967-690 first novel, Soldiers in Hiding, won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Since then, he has published other novels and a wide variety of short stories. His subsequent novels: Fool’s Gold, Festival for Three Thousand Maidens, Indio, etc. have received positive reviews in the New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. In 1989 he has been a professor . . .

Review | THROUGH GRATEFUL EYES: The Peace Corps Experiences of Dartmouth’s Class of 1967

Jun 23 2023

Through Grateful Eyes: The Peace Corps Experiences of Dartmouth’s Class of 1967 by Charles A. (Chuck) Hobbie (Korea 1968-71) — Compiler/Editor iUniverse Publisher 273 pages July 2022 $2.99 (Kindle); $39.99 (Paperback); $31.95 (Hardback) Reviewed by Evelyn Kohl LaTorre (Peru 1964-1966) • “Talk less and listen more.” “Accept the values of the population you’re working with.” “Adapt to being comfortable being uncomfortable.” These are a few of the sage learnings found in this 2 ½ pound, 8 1/2” x 11” tome that relates the Peace Corps experiences of 19 members of the Dartmouth class of 1967 and several of their spouses. All served in the Peace Corps in the late sixties and early seventies, and their exploits are a sampling of the 30 Dartmouth ’67 graduates who went on to join the Peace Corps. Their fascinating, and often humorous, stories are punctuated with 146 photos that show the youthful volunteers . . .

The Volunteer Who Became a Well Published Novelist | Richard Wiley (Korea)

Apr 21 2023

A substantial portion of this profile was drawn from an October 2000 interview with Pif Magazine. Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) Richard Wiley, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Korea, 1967-69, is an American novelist and short-story writer whose first novel, Soldiers in Hiding, won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Since then, he has published seven other novels and a wide variety of short stories. His subsequent novels, Fool’s Gold, Festival for Three Thousand Maidens, and Indigo received favorable notice in America’s flagship book periodical the New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. Despite this, only his more recent book Ahmed’s Revenge, published by Random House remains in print. Richard holds a B. A. from the University of Puget Sound and an M. A. from Sophia University in Tokyo. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he studied under the . . .

John Givens (Korea) — IRISH WALLED TOWNS

Feb 26 2023

Native Californian John Givens teaches fiction writing in Dublin. Givens was a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea. He studied art and language in Kyoto for four years. Givens attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and graduated with an MFA in creative writing. He worked in Tokyo as a writer and editor for eight years. Givens also worked at K2 Design in NYC, and at Digitas and Landor Associates in San Francisco. Givens’ published novels are: Sons of the Pioneers, A Friend in the Police; and Living Alone. His short story collection, The Plum Rains, was published in Dublin by The Liffey Press. Short stories have appeared in literary magazines in the US, Europe and Asia. His non-fiction publications include Irish Walled Towns and A Guide to Dublin Bay: Mirror to the City. . Irish Walled Towns John Givens (Korea 1967-69) Liffey Press Publisher August 2008 280 pages $79.98 (Hardback)

Here’s a story I never told anyone — Richard Wiley (Korea)

Nov 21 2022

Raw Potato Bridge by Richard Wiley (Korea 1967-69) Here’s a story I never told anyone. One evening in August of 1967 I was walking to our Peace Corps training’s makeshift bar with my roommate, Tom, when he asked me in the kind of shaky voice that signaled deep naiveté back then, “Look, don’t laugh, but do you have to be circumcised to have sex with Jewish girls?” We were strolling along with our hands in our pockets, both our brows furrowed. “I don’t think so,” I said, but did Tom have a particular girl in mind? Someone in our group? I tried to think, but I hardly knew who was Jewish and who wasn’t, and Tom had never mentioned anyone. Tom was from Birmingham, Alabama. He was big (6’2”, 270 pounds), and he’d lost his father to a fire his father started himself, in an alcoholic stupor, in, of . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | September – October 2022

Nov 02 2022

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers to order a book and/or to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our Third . . .

FINDING OUR WAY by Steven Gallon (Korea)

Oct 19 2022

In the summer of 1967 a young husband and wife, barely in their twenties, depart home and family in Southern California to embark on a grand adventure. Finding Our Way: A Newlywed Couple’s Peace Corps Odyssey in 1960s Korea chronicles two years of their life together as Peace Corps Volunteers in South Korea. Living with a host Korean family, they discover the patterns and rhythms of everyday life in a country whose culture and customs are unfamiliar. Stationed in Taegu, Korea’s third largest city, they introduce spoken English to Korean middle school students. As guests in a foreign land they face cultural dilemmas, embrace adventures of discovery, experience trying times and build lifelong friendships. Korea in the late 1960s was emerging from decades of Japanese occupation, and a devastating war with cultural neighbors and political enemies in the North. It was a time of economic hardship for much of the population . . .

Richard Wiley (Korea) | Who Told You She Is Your Wife?

Oct 19 2022

Who Told You She Is Your Wife? By Richard Wiley (Korea 1967–69) • Once a famous Nigerian playwright got a call from a woman who was in love with him. He knew the woman. She had been a paramour of his Or he of hers. Or maybe their relationship had been on equal footing, I don’t know. But whatever happened was years in the past by the time he got the call. And in the call, the woman said she wanted him back. “I am married now,” he told her. “Surely you know that.” “Who told you you are married?” the woman asked, her voice settling into the low center-of-gravity, pre-battle, mode that Nigerians know how to articulate best. “Who told me? I attended the ceremony. I remember exchanging vows.” “I will tear her asunder, teach her the meaning of ‘six feet under,’ then we’ll see who’s married. Who told . . .

16 New books by Peace Corps writers — May and June, 2022

Jul 01 2022

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers to order a book and/or to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a copy along with a few instructions. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our Third Goal . . .

RPCV Gerry Krzic “We left Korea, but Korea never left us”

Sep 02 2020

By Gerry Krzic who teaches at Ohio University and serves as the president of Friends of Korea. He was a PCV in Korea from 1977 to 1980. Gerry Krzic teaches at Daechang Middle School in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang Province, in 1977. / Courtesy of Gerry Krzic Anyone who has spent time in Korea has probably heard of “jeong,” a concept characterized as a collective emotion of caring, love, attachment ― an unspoken bond difficult to define but evident when seen in action. Jeong is usually described in different forms such as jeong between friends (woojeong) and between mother and child (mojeong). I would like to offer another form of jeong ― Peace Corps jeong ― permeating in a subset of American society. That is, Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Korea from 1966 to 1981. I returned in 2013 for a one-week Revisit Korea Program sponsored by . . .

Review — MUKHO MEMORIES by Don Haffner (Korea)

Aug 23 2017

Mukho Memories: A Peace Corps/Korea Memoir by Don Haffner (Korea 1972–75) Dog Ear Publishing May 2017 406 pages $20.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976–77) • MUKHO MEMORIES BY DON HAFFNER (Korea, 1972–75) is the fourth or fifth Peace Corps Korea memoir I’ve read. While the personalities of the authors make each distinct, these volumes (and likely Peace Corps memoirs about other countries of service as well) all tell roughly the same story: idealistic young American comes to an under-developed country, discovers the wonders and peculiarities of the place, and returns home forever changed by the experience. As a Korea RPCV myself (I arrived in Korea a few months after Haffner left), my own memories are quite similar to Haffner’s: the anxiety of being outside the US for the first time, in a non-English speaking country, no less; the triple-whammy shock of new cuisine, new culture, and . . .

Review — LEARNING TO LOVE KIMCHI by Carol MacGregor Cissel (Korea)

May 25 2016

Learning to Love Kimchi: Letters Home from a Peace Corps Volunteer Carol MacGregor Cissel (Korea 1973–75) CreateSpace May 2016 274 pages $10.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976–77) • CAROL CISSEL EMBARKED on her Peace Corps odyssey in December, 1973. “We’re in Korea!” she writes home to her mother upon arrival after a journey through Honolulu and Tokyo with her service group. This exclamation forms the opening of Cissel’s memoir, Learning to Love Kimchi. What follows are all the letters she wrote to her mother over the course of her two years working in Korea as an education Volunteer and the months spent touring Southeast Asia after the completion of her service. My own Peace Corps/Korea experience began just a few days after Cissel left the country, so I read these letters with considerable fondness and nostalgia, remembering my own first taste of kimchi, my own . . .