IVS New courtesy of Mike Chilton

IVS News courtesy of Mike Chilton

(note - the following "Vietnam: Beyond the Frame" is now available. Click the link to go there.)

E-MAIL MEMO

To: The IVSAA e-mail list
From: Linda Worthington

Phyllis Westover (VN 63-65) has sent a letter to the IVSAA officers alerting us to an opportunity for Vietnam former volunteers. I'll try to describe briefly what the opportunity is, how to make contact on it, and leave it up to those who are interested to respond. If, after you read it, you want to contact Phyllis she is at pgwestover@everestke.net.

Mike Chilton (VN 60-65), our alumni president, will also make every effort to contact some of the alums who might be interested.

This e-mail list is NOT (yet) broken into sub-lists by country, so many of you who served elsewhere will also get this - but it should be of interest anyway. I'll include at least one other bit of news, particularly of interest to Lao volunteers.

First: the Vietnam piece.
Phyllis introduces it by saying, "A fellow writer who knows my Vietnam short story won Boulevard literary magazine's 2003 fiction award alerted me to the enclosed call for manuscripts that has a February 15, 2004 deadline. I was knocked out by the stories I heard at our IVS 50th reunion in West Virginia; awesome. The Michigan Quarterly Review issue planned for Fall 2004 on "Vietnam: Beyond the Frame" is a bull's eye for IVS Vietnam volunteers. More readers need to know Vietnam as we experienced it."

Call for Manuscripts
A SPECIAL ISSUE OF MICHIGAN QUARTELY REVIEW FOR FALL 2004, TITLED "VIETNAM: BEYOND THE FRAME" edited by Rebekah linh Collins and Barbara Tran

For everyone there is a Vietnam "beyond the frame" : the one they never read about or saw depicted on their TV and movie screens, the one they came to know intimately, lost in the myths of history, the one they heard about from families in the diaspora but never experienced personally.
This issue of MQR will be a forum for writers in a variety of academic disciplines, as well as creative writers, to explore the terra incognito of a nation and people insufficiently studied and understood. It will include scholarly and personal essays, memoirs, fiction, poetry, book reviews, and graphic art.

Manuscripts should be sent to the MQR office no later than Feb. 15, 2004. Include self-addressed stamped envelope. Guidelines for the manuscripts say no fewer than 1500 words and no more than 7000. Poetry is exempt. Queries should be addressed to the editors at MQR@umich.edu

The address is: Michigan Quarterly Review, 3574 Rackham Bldg., 915 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070. No e-mail or faxed manuscripts.
For this information, guidelines for manuscripts and other, go to the Web site: www.umich.edu/~mqr/

MQR, which was begun in 1962, says of itself, "It must be emphasized that authors in MQR use clear prose, free of jargon, to present their arguments. Because the journal has been able to attract such excellent writers, and because its contents are so often reprinted in prize anthologies, textbooks, magazines such as Harper's and The Utne Reader, we believe that MQR fulfills in each issue the hopes of its founder and the expectations of its loyal readers."

Now for the other item:
Dick Kierstead (VN 59-61) e-mailed the following information to an e-mail list he has, but I don't know how many have actually received it, so will pass along the information that Bob Zigler died Sept. 15. Here is what I originally wrote:

This is to inform you-all that Bob Zigler, Laos 61-63, died Sept. 15 after several years of illness. A memorial service was held Sunday, Sept. 21 at the Washington city Church of the Brethren, and a graveside service at the Linwood Creek Church of the Brethren cemetery in Broadway, Va. He was 83.

Bob was a conscientious objector during World War II. In 1951 he rejoined Heifer Project, after an earlier stint, as an administrator. After his IVS days in Laos, he became a regular employee of USAID until he retired in 1985. He worked primarily as a trainer and administrator in Vietnam, Subic Bay, Philippines, Washington, DC, Ghana and Upper Volta.

After retirement he worked as a docent at the Smithsonian's African Art Museum, where he was an expert. He donated many African masks to museums and colleges all over the world.

Even before his retirement to Washington in 1985, Bob would lend a hand to assist and attend any functions that IVS held. He kept in touch with old Lao hands, especially those associated with Pop Buell's medical and development work among the Hmong and other tribal areas.

Bob's sister pre-deceased him, and survivors include his brother-in-law, six nieces and nephews, 10 great nieces and nephews and six great-great nieces and nephews.

Memorial contributions may be made to On Earth Peace, 500 Main St., P.O. Box 188, New Windsor, MD 21776 (Church of the Brethren); or River Park Friends, 389 O St., SW, Washington, DC 20025.

It would be appreciated if anyone receiving this notice would pass the message along to other IVS alums. And share your remembrances of Bob.

One last thing
IVSAA is on a yahoo groups list serve that sends any information posted to all those on that list, and offers opportunity for responding back and forth with all those on the list. I don't know how many there are, but not many, and most are Vietnam alums. It doesn't take time, money or very much effort to sign on. Why not do it today. Go to friendsofivs@yahoogroups.com