discovering my passion for writing, specifically through promotion of diversity in children’s literature.

Nearly four years of Peace Corps service as a community development Volunteer in the Republic of Macedonia provided me with ample time to reflect on what it is I plan to do with my one wild and precious life. The result: discovering my passion for writing, specifically through promotion of diversity in children’s literature.

I found purpose for my passion, inspiring the southeast municipality where I live to put on Macedonia’s first children’s book festival in a rural environment in sync with the United Nations’ World Book Day on April 23, 2015. The project included publishing two bilingual (English/Macedonian) children’s books, promoting the importance of rural communities and the stories they have to tell, and creating the first English library in the municipality.

The two bilingual children’s books, Love the Place Where You Live: A Bridge Between Two Hearts, Book 1 and 2 (pictured below) are authored and illustrated by 120 students from the municipality and from my elementary school in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I had connected these students as pen pals in 2013. The idea to create the books was largely inspired by their passion of learning about each other. I never saw these students as excited as on the days of anticipation leading up to receive letters from their pen pals.

More than 200 copies of the books have been distributed throughout libraries in six rural municipalities, as well as the national library in Skopje. The books are now available to thousands of youth, helping them practice English and learn about rural culture in Idaho and the rural Macedonian municipality where I live.