Peace Corps Letters Home Solicited

The organization Peace Corps Writers is soliciting letters
written home by PCVs for a publication that will coincide
with the celebration of Peace Corps’s 50th
anniversary. Project advisor is Andrew Carroll, editor of
the bestselling books of “war letters,” featuring the extraordinary
correspondence of American soldiers from
many eras. Letters Home will be one way for Peace
Corps Writers to preserve the history of the Peace Corps.
PCW believes personal correspondence offers a valuable
insight into the experience we all shared. They prefer
previously unpublished material, but letters and/or emails
that have already appeared in local newspapers,
self-published books, and/or family web sites are all acceptable.

In selecting a letter (or e-mail) to be considered for
publication in the book, we ask that you choose it thus:
Would a reader find the letter intriguing? . . Dramatic?
. . Humorous? . . Historic? . . Insightful? If you can answer
yes to one of these questions, send it. The editors, John
Coyne and Marian Haley Beil, will select the very best
letters that tell the story—through the eyes of PCVs and
Staff—of the Peace Corps since its beginnings in 1961.
Your letters can be about any aspect of the Peace
Corps experience: Making the Decision to Join, Training,
Peace Corps Service, Friends, HCNs, Family Visits,
After the Peace Corps, Life as an RPCV, Returning to the
Host Country.

The deadline for submission for first cut is September
4, 2007. Send no more than three letters, legible photocopies
or typed transcripts. Please do not send original letters
as materials will not be returned. Send to: Marian
Haley Beil, 4 Lodge Pole Road, Pittsford, New York
14534. Send your e-mails to: jpcoyne@peacecorpswriters.
org. Please put in the subject line: Letters Home From
the Peace Corps

Please include for either letters or e-mails: Information
about yourself or the PCV/RPCV or staff member
who wrote the letter (e.g., where and when he or she
served, and any other important personal and/or background
information); your phone number, e-mail address
and mailing address.

Do not send a query asking if we are interested in
your correspondence. If your letters (or e-mails) are
Peace Corps-related and meet the criteria described
above, you should assume that we are interested in
reading them and considering them for publication in
Letters Home From the Peace Corps.