"Americans Do Their Business Abroad" is....

...an anthology of travel writing -- humorous yet harrowing tales of self-deprecation and disaster. Good, visceral fun.

When you returned from the Peace Corps, what interested your friends and family? Was it the hours of labor and frustration that helped to better yourself and the people of your host country? Or was it the the food, the parasites, the cab drivers and the humorous occasion whence you nearly died of a piranha bite during a clandestine trip up the Mangange River in search of Mamma Fougamou's twice-baked psychedelic frog skins? (For example.)

We thought so.

As one writer put it, "these are the stories that got me uninvited from a few dinner parties."

And that's what we want for AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD. Think bathroom stories. Think disaster stories. Think food stories. Think hospital stories. Think traveling stories. Think sex stories. Above all, think funny stories.

THE SUBMISSION PERIOD IS NOW CLOSED
Thanks to everyone who submitted work. The editing process has begun in earnest.

WAYS YOU CAN HELP MAKE THE ANTHOLOGY A SUCCESS
1. Provide us with a URL for your homepage, RPCV group or preferred charity for links listing to help drive traffic your way.
2. Forward this link to your Peace Corps contacts, ASAP. (If you want, CC jfawsonATgmailDOTcom and stevemcnuttATearthlinkDOTnet so we can update more people on the anthology's progress.)
* Note: If you've been contacted, but would rather not receive any future updates or reminders please write us and we'll gladly take you off the list.

Yours truly,
Jake Fawson and Steve McNutt, eds.

WHO ARE THE EDITORS?
Steve McNutt lives and writes in Iowa City, Iowa and is pursuing an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at the University of Iowa. Jake Fawson bides his time as a master’s student in the Communication department at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Both served as Environmental Education Volunteers in Gabon, Central Africa from 2000-2002. You can see Steve McNutt's web site here. Jake Fawson can be found lurking behind dumpsters whistling Dixie and looking for Mamma Fougamou's twice-baked psychedelic frog skins. He recommends this blog.

A Word About Our Aesthetic, Humor and Not Being an Ugly American

1. We, your friendly editors, rather firmly believe that if anyone is the target of humor/horror in AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD, it should be the volunteer (or a parasite or a thick-skulled bureaucrat -- is that redundant?). Think: self-deprecating. Most of us were hopelessly lost at various points in our service. I know someone who (and I'm not naming names) spent his first day in a French-speaking country telling everyone "Je suis joli" thinking "joli" was French for "jolly" or "happy." Instead he was approaching strangers and saying "I am pretty."

That's a lightly ribald example and an easy way of saying there's all kinds of horror/funny stuff and all kinds of ways of writing it. Maybe it's easiest to say that we don't want stuff that hints at cultural superiority or exoticizing of the "noble savage." A writer who shows self-awareness of his/her own weaknesses and finds the humor in these moments is exactly the kind of person we'll dig once, twice, three times a lady. If, on top of that, a person develops an intestinal ailment then slap me hard, call me happy and send it to us.

(But feel free to demonstrate cultural superiority over parasites. They deserve it.)

2. Those who partake in what we call "creative nonfiction" are welcome (i.e. composite characters used to protect privacy and so on in the search for larger Emotional Truths and streamlining of events for narrative simplicity). But no James Frey junk.

3. We want good writing. That's what matters. We wish we knew how to define that. Sorry. (When in doubt, the visceral "fell down a damn mountain while making tacos" stuff is always good.)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. SUBMISSIONS DUE: September 15, 2006.
(Please read the legal notice on rights and reprints at the bottom of the guidelines prior to submitting.)

2. EMAIL your work as either MSWord or Rich Text (RTF) attachments to: jfawsonATgmailDOTcom and stevemcnuttATearthlinkDOTnet. Do not paste into the email.

4. LENGTH: Short is fine, although every entry needs a beginning, middle and an end. Stories over 15 pages probably need to be tighter.

5. ACCEPTANCE NOTICES will be handled by e-mail.

6. ORDERING: information available via emailing the editors and by viewing this site.

7. EDITS: If edits are required, we will contact you to make sure you are cool with any suggested changes.

8. FORMAT: Use smart quotes (the kind that curl), hard returns and m-dashes (not hyphens). Use ellipses, not three periods in a row. Avoid non-standard fonts that we may not have on our computers (such as Dingbats for space breaks etc.)

9. PAYMENT: One free copy of The Reader, your name in print, and the heart-warming knowledge that your story is benefiting people less fortunate than you. (That's why you joined PC in the first place, right? Right.)

OTHER STUFF WE NEED:
-- A 1-3 sentence bio that will run below your story (or in an appendix).
-- Your complete contact info.
-- The name of your favorite worthy cause.
-- Tell us if this is previously printed work. This is fine, as long as you (a) tell us and (b) demonstrate you have permission to reprint it and tell us where it appeared previously, and when. We can't pay for reprint rights.

IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE ON RIGHTS AND USAGE
By submitting information to AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD (also referred to as THE READER), you grant AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD a royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity rights at its sole discretion. This includes incorporating your work in an upcoming anthology of travel writing tentatively titled AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD: THE PEACE CORPS LATRINE READER. (The name of the publication may change.) AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD accepts previously published work and, by request, is open to granting other, future reprints of your work. (Translation: we are interested in being cool and accommodating and appreciative of your willingness to share your genius.) Please note: by submitting work, you take responsibility for informing us of previous and future reprints of your work and securing reprint copyrights from previous publishers when necessary. (Translated: don’t get us into copyright trouble, please.)

If you do not wish to grant AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD these rights, it is suggested that you do not submit work for the anthology. AMERICANS DO THEIR BUSINESS ABROAD reserves the right to select, edit and arrange submissions at its sole discretion.