Barbados RPCV Bob Shacochis - "I went there, underage, to go surfing. Against the wishes of my parents. The Peace Corps was a scheme to get back [at them]. I got off the plane in Barbados with my surfboard and everybody laughed...Peace Corps volunteers are like sailors葉hey read like crazy. You're often alone. So you read books."
Bob Shacochis - "I went there, underage, to go surfing. Against the wishes of my parents. The Peace Corps was a scheme to get back [at them]. I got off the plane in Barbados with my surfboard and everybody laughed...Peace Corps volunteers are like sailors葉hey read like crazy. You're often alone. So you read books."
Going abroad for some hard-corps inspiration In its forty years (March 1 marks the official anniversary), the Peace Corps has sent more than 160,000 Americans all over the globe. More than 400 of them have gone on to become published writers, producing 1,100 books.
Those figures come courtesy of John Coyne, who should know: He runs PeaceCorpsWriters.org, an electronic hub for returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs) interested in writing, as well as for those who are already seasoned scribblers. It includes an extensive database of the latter and interviews and essays by and about some of the many who have become prominent (Paul Theroux, Kinky Friedman and Peter Lefcourt, just to name a few).
"Nine out of ten volunteers who go overseas think they'll write the great Peace Corps novel," the sixty-one-year-old Coyne says. For whatever reason, that hasn't happened yet. "We have not made the impression on the literary public that Vietnam has, even though the Peace Corps started at roughly the same time."
That isn't to say Corps alumni haven't produced some very good books. Theroux, who served in the African country of Malawi and is the author of The Mosquito Coast and Fresh Air Fiend, among others, is one of the best known of the group. (Ironically, he was kicked out of the organization in 1965 for being what his Corps supervisor called "a high-risk, high-gain volunteer.") And Turkey volunteer Kent Haruf's novel Plainsong was a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award.
In honor of the organization's birthday, Coyne has been spearheading a multicity reading tour that will run through September. He's inviting authors as notable as those mentioned above as well as some up-and-comers, such as Peter Hessler預 China volunteer and author of the brand-new River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze.
"It's been like trying to organize a plate of spaghetti," Coyne says. (Not all ex-volunteers, he explains, are eager to re-acquaint themselves with the government.) But the readings庸rom New York City to Santa Barbara, California預re coming together steadily. Check Coyne's Web site for an updated schedule.
TOURS OF DUTY: Three Peace Corps writers speak out
Paul Theroux BOOKS The Mosquito Coast, Hotel Honolulu (due in May) PC ASSIGNMENT Malawi '62
"From the beginning, I never expected to change the country very much. I thought Malawi would change傭ut not because of anything I did. I was wrong about that. It's in much worse shape now. The people there are very good, but the government is fairly weird...I had never really seen a dictatorship close up."
Bob Shacochis BOOKS The Immaculate Invasion, Domesticity PC ASSIGNMENT Caribbean '75
"I went there, underage, to go surfing. Against the wishes of my parents. The Peace Corps was a scheme to get back [at them]. I got off the plane in Barbados with my surfboard and everybody laughed...Peace Corps volunteers are like sailors葉hey read like crazy. You're often alone. So you read books."
Kent Haruf BOOKS Plainsong, The Tie That Binds PC ASSIGNMENT Turkey '65
"I came back realizing how ignorant we are of other cultures...All I could write about [while volunteering in Turkey] with any realism was about a foreigner experiencing a foreign country. I did learn Turkish, but I wasn't fluent. So I didn't know the names of the bugs, but I could get around."
