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Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979-80) who published A Little Love Story and Golfing with God this year had an op-ed piece “Of God, and Men” in the September 9, 2006, Boston Globe. Roland is now writing “another” book about God. | |||||
Japanland, a 4-Hour PBS Series, by Karin Muller (Philippines 198789) is now available as a 2-DVD set with a slide-show and never-before-seen footage. This film by Karin follows her as she seeks out the many unique and sometimes obscure subcultures of Japan including sumo wrestlers, sword makers, geishas, Buddhist monks, and even the now-iconic workaholic, career-track salary-man. She experiences the great diversity and proud humanity of a nation rooted in the past but looking toward the future. You can contact Karin at: Karin@karinmuller.com. Or check out: JapanlandOnline.com. | |||||
Nita Noveno (Cameroon 198890) is a writer and educator who after graduating from the New School MFA Creative Writing Program asked her wise advisor “What next?” and the answer she received “Start a reading series!” She founded the Sunday Salon prose reading series in the summer of 2002 and along with fellow graduate, Caroline Berger, hosts a pool of talented emerging and published writers (a few RPCVs included!) every third Sunday of the month in Brooklyn. For more information, go to: SundaySalon.com. | |||||
Toren Volkmann (Paraguay 2003) and his mother Chris and their book From Binge to Blackout: A Mother and Son Struggle with Teen Drinking were featured in the September 4, 2006 issue of People Magazine. Toren went to Paraguay where at a September in-country conference he had an emotional breakdown and was sent home. It was the first his family realized he had an alcohol problem. In Paraguay, Toren recalls, “I found serenity being out in the country with some of the warmest people I have ever encountered. In my little community, I was trying to reinvent myself as a normal person. When I saw other Volunteers in Asunción, I tried to be a social drinker, but I was lying to myself . . . I was hiding drinks and was ashamed for the first time. Finally I found myself in the Peace Corps medical office. I was given Valium and put in a hotel room to begin detoxing.” |
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Susan O’Neill (Venezuela 1973-74) has just published her fourth piece on Amazon Shorts, a new site where readers can download stories, essays and segments of serial works from published authors for 49 cents each. The current piece, “The Hungry Ghosts,” is her first non-fiction entry on the site, an essay about traveling in Hue in 1969, during the author’s service as an Army nurse in Viet Nam. O’Neill also has three fiction stories available on the site: |
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Paul Karrer (Samoa 197880) published a story about a former student, now in prison, writing to thank Paul for teaching him to play chess. This full page story entitled, “All The Wrong Moves” was published in Teachers’ Magazine. |
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The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban by Sarah Chayes (Morocco 198486) came out in August from Penguin Press. Sarah was a reporter in Afghanistan for NPR and then become “field director” of Afghans for Civil Society. |
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George Packer (Togo198283) won the 2006 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism for his book, The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. This award is given annually to honor a journalist whose work brings clarity and public attention to important issues. Packer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of two novels and three works of nonfiction one, a winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. In presenting the award, NY Public Library president Paul LeClerc said Assassins’ Gate “provides a balanced and nuanced view of the forces that led to the war in Iraq and its human and political consequences” and is “an immensely valuable contribution to our understanding of this complex and tragic drama in the Middle East.” |
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The cover story of the Spring 2006 issue of African Arts was written by Shawn Davis (Mali 199698) . Davis, a photographer who works for the Academy for Educational Development, wrote “Visual Griots of Mali, Empowering Youth through the Art of Photography,” a 14-page homage to a project created by the late Washington, DC photographer Nestor Hernandez. Davis and Hernandez, together with their team, including Malian photographer Alioune Ba, mounted a series of interactive workshops for 22 young Malian sixth graders in Bwa country. The young photographers’ work was exhibited in Bamako at the 6th African Encounters of Photography biennial and may now be enjoyed by visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington from October 2, 2006 to April 29, 2007. For more information, visit www.aed.org/visualgriots or contact Shawn Davis at sdavis@aed.org. Shawn’s website is at ShawnDavisphoto.com |
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Word from Beijing is that Peter Hessler (China 199698) has finished his research on his next book on China and is moving back to the United States by the first of the year. Peter also reports that he was married in June to a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Leslie Chang, an American who has been living in China for awhile. Leslie is also working on a book. They plan on living next in the Southwest of the U.S. to finish their books before heading back overseas. At the moment, they are not sure where they will go, though Peter writes, “we’ll figure it out.” | |||||
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