Yesterday, RPCV John Coyne announced this year’s Peace Corps Writers awards, including categories in fiction, nonfiction, travel writing, poetry, memoir, photography, children’s writing, and Peace Corps experience.
Peace Corps Writers annually presents awards for books by Peace Corps writers. Winners of those awards have included Joanne Omang, Norm Rush, Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Paul Theroux.
The winning books published in 2008 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 Best Children’s Writing
The Butter Man
By Elizabeth Letts Alalou (Morocco 1983–86) and Ali Alalou
Charlesbridge Publishing
Award for Best Peace Corps Memoir
Triumph & Hope: GoldenYears With The Peace Corps in Hondureas
By Barbara E. Joe (Honduras 2000–03)
BookSurge
Award for Best Book of Photography
Drokpa: Nomads of the Tibetan Plateau and Himalaya
By Daniel J. Miller (Nepal 1974–78)
Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Publications
Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award
Kitchen Diplomacy
By Kristin Ruger (Kazahkstan 2005–07)
The New Service 