Twenty years after completing her Peace Corps service, Meredith Cornett’s return trip to Panama this summer coincided with the publication of her first book, “Peace Corps in Panama: Fifty Years, Many Voices.”
To promote the book, Cornett will kick off a fall tour in International Falls at 2 p.m. Nov. 4 at Rainy River Community College theater. The event is open to the public and will feature stories, images and information about the ways international service enriches lives at home and abroad.
From the age of 12, Cornett dreamed of serving as a Peace Corps volunteer, said a release. That dream became a reality in 1991 when she began her service in the Republic of Panama. Cornett is one of more than 200,000 returned Peace Corps volunteers who have served around the world in the 52 years since the program was founded by former President John F. Kennedy.
Cornett is among the 1 percent of Peace Corps volunteers who have served in the Republic of Panama. She served in Panama from 1991 to 1993.
Cornett’s book, “Peace Corps in Panama: Fifty Years, Many Voices,” was published in honor of Peace Corps Panama’s 50th anniversary. The book is available in paperback and for the Kindle through www.meredithwcornett.com.
“Working on this collection of stories connected me with many generations of returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Panama,” Cornett said in a release. “The Peace Corps experience is unique to each volunteer, but there are common elements that weave through every story.”
Over a two-year period, Cornett reached out to hundreds of returned Peace Corps volunteers who served in Panama soliciting their stories and poems. The result is a collection of poetry and short memoir that spans every year of Peace Corps service across each province of Panama. She edited the anthology, which contains two of her own essays.
Cornett is a 2013 recipient of an Arrowhead Regional Arts Council Career Development Grant, which provided financial support for the project. The book was launched at a 50th anniversary reunion of Peace Corps volunteers in Panama City this summer.
