Tree Bernstein
words & pictures
Here's an excerpt:
I am sent home three times for inappropriate attire, once for wearing an
at-home sarong. (Sarongs are only meant for going to the shower, I am told.)
Once for not having a pointy collar on my shirt—which is not Peace Corps Professional,
and once for wearing a denim shirt, which is a sure sign of the devil. Our collective luggage stays behind
in Seattle for a couple of days, so the Peace Corps volunteer trainees’ wardrobe selections are limited.
Tomorrow we will go to a local tailor for our sampots (culturally appropriate long skirts), and shirts with
pointy collars.
Cambodia, The Kingdom of Wonder, is where the temples of Angkor Wat are found. That much I knew. Cambodia is also infamous for landmines leftover from Maoist dictator Pol Pot’s brutal war, his Khmer Rouge responsible for the deaths of 2 million during its reign from 1975 to 1979. An atlas shows a tropical climate in a mostly flat landscape, with the majority of the population rice farmers. The religion is 98% Buddhist,
1% Muslim, 1% Christian. The language of Cambodia is Khmer (which is pronounced Kam-mai). Despite how little I know of this country, I join the Peace Corps to teach English at a rural high school in Cambodia. My alter ego is Mighty Mouse—Here I come to save the day! Yet, eventually, Peace Corps volunteers, NGO workers, and eco-tourists come to realize how mouse-like our efforts really are, mighty or not. How impractical we must appear to the villagers we’ve come to save. We tell our family and friends back home we want “to make a difference” in the lives of those less fortunate. But how can a former college English professor make a difference in such immense poverty? It isn’t so much the lack of material goods as the lack of possibility.
Why join the Peace Corps at your age, you might ask? I am a card-carrying senior citizen when I sign up. This is not an early retirement plan—in fact it isn’t much of a plan at all. My life in bucolic Ojai, California is pleasant enough; I teach writing and literature at a private college in a community of artists, actors, and writers. Our town is known as California’s Shangri la. Truth is, I join out of grief. Perhaps the Peace Corps will give me insight into the next chapter of my life.
Mistranslations
in the Kingdom of Wonder
Mistranslations is a memoir of my recent journey as a 65-year-old Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English and Art in a rural Cambodian village for two years (2015-17). It's a heartbreaking story that chronicles my experience within the context of larger issues, such as international aid, eco-tourism, and the politics of poverty.
Yet it's also kind of funny.
MISTRANSLATIONS is a memoir of my recent journey as a 65-year-old Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English and Art in a rural Cambodian village for two years (2015-17). It includes moments of tenderness and tragedy, along with delight and laughter, amid countless mistranslations of language and cultural differences.
It's also kinda funny.
Selected Publications & Awards
The Sun magazine. Readers Write on Privacy: "In Cambodia
You Are Never Alone." Sept. 2023
Finalist: Nowhere magazine Nonfiction Travel Writing Contest."King Javavarman the VII & the Bell Ringer." 2021
The Last Tourist in Bali, stories, Baksun Books. 2020
If Bees Are Few, “A/B/C Scenarios” U. Minnesota Press. 2016
"Postcards from Cambodia" Peace Corps blog. 2015-17
Contributing reporter for Ventana Monthly. 2014-16
Contributing reporter for The Ojai Quarterly. 2010-16
Low Down & Coming On, “Regarding Pigs” Red Dragonfly. 2010
"Ask Ms. Metaphor: Poetic Advice for Everyday Use."
2010-15 (print) 2020 (online)
Jentel Artist Residency, Sheridan, WY. 2024
Jaipur Literature Festival Colorado. Author Series speaker. 2019
Writer in Residence at Hypatia-in-the-Woods, Shelton, WA. 2017
Finalist: Peace Corps worldwide Blog It Home competition. 2016
Finalist: Boulder Weekly’s 101-Word Fiction Contest. 2016; 21
First Prize: Blue ribbon—apricot jam! Ventura County Fair. 2014
Grant, Ventura CA, California Poets in the Schools (CPITS) 2013-15
Grant, CPITS for outreach to underserved schools. 2013
Grant, Boulder Arts Commission (BAC) Arts & Humanities Assembly of Boulder (AHAB), for "A Poet's Alphabet." 2000
Grant, BAC and AHAB for publication of "Elements." 1999
Grant, Colorado Council of the Arts, "Sumo Haiku Heavyweight Championship." 1999
Prose Prize: Boulder Planet Fiction Contest. "Pictures." 1997
Grant, Colorado Council of the Arts, "Elements" poetry collaboration. 1997
Upcoming Workshops & Teaching Experience
It's All Memoir, a one-day writer's workshop at the Dairy
Arts Center, Boulder, CO. November 2023
I Have a Dream, a 4-week poetry workshop for elementary-school students, Longmont, CO. October 2023
Story, 4-week writer's workshop Longmont, CO. Winter 2023
Poetic Forms, 4-week writer's workshop Longmont Senior
Center, CO. 2022-23
Peace Corps Volunteer Teacher of English & Art Cambodia. 2015-17
Poetry Workshop Leader & Area Coordinator for California Poets
in the Schools (CPITS), Ventura County, CA. 2010-15
Poetry Coach, Poetry Out Loud. 2010-15
Adjunct English professor, Brooks Photography Institute,
Ventura, CA. 2004-15
Adjunct English professor, Ventura Community College,
Ventura, CA. 2004-15
Adjunct English Professor, Rocky Mountain College of Art
& Design, Denver, CO. 2000-02
Recent & Upcoming Art Exhibitions
Lafayette Arts & Cultural Resources Dept. biennial Lost & Found: Art with Found Objects exhibit. "Birdy" found glove with poem. CO. 2023
The Big Draw, “Buckthorn Near & Far” & "Strawflower Stars" cyanotype-photo-drawing. Arvada Center, CO. 2023
Marshall Renews Art Exhibition, "What Remains; Reframed; Reclamation" cyanotype-photocollage triptych. Benefit for Marshall Fire victims. Louisville, CO. 2023
On Edge, "Moonlight Ride" cyanotype photocollage,
Edge Gallery, Denver, CO. 2022
Art of the State, “Once in a Blue Moon” cyanotype photocollage, Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, CO. 2022
Happiness, “Flower Photobombers” Exhibizone online. 2021
Green Show, “Green Gallery” metal photo, Core New Art Space, Denver, CO. 2021
Escape, “Look Homeward Angel” photocollage, Next Gallery, Denver, CO. 2021
Backroads: Art Less Traveled, “Acolytes Ascend into the Blue Mystery” collage at Vestige Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA. 2021
Blue “Goddess of the Dawn” photocollage at O’Hanlon Arts, Mill Valley, CA online. 2021
Knickers in a Bunch. “Strange Dreams” collage online. 2021
Pink Progression, “Middle of the Story” original book forgeries; collaboration with painter Irene Delka McCray at Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, CO. 2020
RAW Artists National Arts Drive. Sidewalk chalk portrait,
“Harriet Tubman: Black Lives Matter” Longmont, CO. 2020
"Postcards from Cambodia" photos & poems exhibition at
Ojai Art Center, Ojai, CA. 2017
Education
Cert TESOL, Trinity College London at Indonesia/Australian Language Foundation, Denpasar, Bali. 2003
MFA Writing & Poetics. Naropa University, Boulder, CO. 1992
BA English. University of Colorado at Boulder. 1988