2010.10.11: October 11, 2010: John Coyne's Work Recognized at Peace Corps Worldwide
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2010.10.11: October 11, 2010: John Coyne's Work Recognized at Peace Corps Worldwide
John Coyne's Work Recognized at Peace Corps Worldwide
Coyne edits a busy website called Peace Corps Worldwide, where volunteers share their experiences through a network of blogs. The site grew out of a newsletter Coyne created with Marian Haley Beil in 1987 and a smaller website that launched in 1999. Peace Corps Worldwide launched four years ago, with Coyne as editor and Haley Beil as publisher. There are more than 200,000 former Peace Corps volunteers, and they've produced a kind of subgenre of the travelogue. By living and working with people over the course of two years, volunteers come back with rich material. "It's a window onto these worlds that the majority of Americans would never have an opportunity to see," said Coyne, who works as communications manager at the College of New Rochelle. He has written or edited more than 25 novels and non-fiction books. As a Peace Corps staff member in 1995, he edited three books of essays about volunteers' experiences. Among the writers who have served in the Peace Corps are novelists Paul Theroux and Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, and magazine writers George Packer, Maureen Orth and Peter Hessler. The problem is, not everyone knows how to put their experience into words. Some accounts might work as an oral history, Coyne said, but not as literature. "You grab the reader by the throat," he advised in a recent post. He doesn't hold back in his online critiques, saying he wants to encourage high standards.
John Coyne's Work Recognized at Peace Corps Worldwide
PeaceCorpsWorldWide.Org Recognized By Westchester, NY Newspaper
Posted by John Coyne
on Monday, October 11th 2010
NEW ROCHELLE - When Peace Corps volunteers return from teaching English, fighting disease or designing irrigation systems, they have one more job to do: tell the story.
Volunteers are expected to share what they learned about the people and cultures they came to know during their two years abroad. Pelham resident John Coyne, an author, blogger and former volunteer in Ethiopia, has made it his mission to help them do so.
Coyne edits a busy website called Peace Corps Worldwide, where volunteers share their experiences through a network of blogs. The site grew out of a newsletter Coyne created with Marian Haley Beil in 1987 and a smaller website that launched in 1999. Peace Corps Worldwide launched four years ago, with Coyne as editor and Haley Beil as publisher.
There are more than 200,000 former Peace Corps volunteers, and they've produced a kind of subgenre of the travelogue. By living and working with people over the course of two years, volunteers come back with rich material.
"It's a window onto these worlds that the majority of Americans would never have an opportunity to see," said Coyne, who works as communications manager at the College of New Rochelle. He has written or edited more than 25 novels and non-fiction books. As a Peace Corps staff member in 1995, he edited three books of essays about volunteers' experiences.
Among the writers who have served in the Peace Corps are novelists Paul Theroux and Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, and magazine writers George Packer, Maureen Orth and Peter Hessler.
The problem is, not everyone knows how to put their experience into words. Some accounts might work as an oral history, Coyne said, but not as literature.
"You grab the reader by the throat," he advised in a recent post. He doesn't hold back in his online critiques, saying he wants to encourage high standards.
The website is independent of the Peace Corps itself,and invites discussion about controversies and politics involving the organization. It taps into a talkative community of ex-volunteers who have formed their own groups in places like San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Coyne was among the first team of volunteers to serve in Ethiopia, in 1962. Though the corps' mission hasn't changed since then, its image has.
"It was a real gamble," he said of the old perceptions. "We were stepping off the edge of the world, in a sense. Now, kids go to Europe in high school, by themselves."
Former volunteers will be especially visible next year, when the Peace Corps marks its 50th anniversary. Events are being scheduled by groups across the country. Coyne is organizing a series of readings by former volunteers, and launching a new series of books in the coming weeks.
The first, by Gabon volunteer Bonnie Lee Black, is titled How to Cook a Crocodile.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: October, 2010; RPCV John Coyne (Ethiopia); Figures; Writers; Peace Corps Ethiopia; Directory of Ethiopia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Ethiopia RPCVs; Writing - Ethiopia
When this story was posted in January 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
| Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all. |
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
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Story Source: Peace Corps Worldwide
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; Writers; COS - Ethiopia; Writing - Ethiopia
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