Slacker's Confession: Essays and Sketches

by Lawrence F. Lihosit

NOMINATED FOR THE ERIC HOFFER AWARD. The author shares more than 100 ink sketches from his Latin American travels as well as essays. He explains how he improved, what materials he likes, the difference between landscapes and live models, working outdoors and indoors. He also offers a peek at some of his travel sketches. Filled with humorous quips, this is fodder for any doodler to keep going!

184 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2018

About the author

The Author was born in the southern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois in 1951. His family later moved to Arizona where he graduated from grade school, high school and Arizona State University. He reluctantly served in the U.S. Army Reserves during the closing years of the Vietnam War and enthusiastically volunteered for the Peace Corps. His travels and work have taken him from the salmon spawning Nushagak River Basin in southwestern Alaska to the fertile Argentine Pampas. His continuing studies have included master’s coursework in urban planning at la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, art and creative writing at Skyline College in San Bruno, California and education at California State University Fresno. He has earned his living as an urban planner for many years, working in Honduras, Mexico, Alaska, Arizona and California.

As a younger man, he picked salmon from set nets in bush Alaska, fought a plague of mosquitoes in Canada, crawled through burial tombs in Peru, rode bulls in Bolivia, relaxed in Ecuadorian volcanic hot springs alongside Indians, hung out with an Uruguayan acting troupe, drank mate with Argentine lawyers, listened to tales of Chilean torture in a peña, floated alongside a pelican on the Sea of Cortes, danced to reggae while sipping cane liquor on Honduran sands, cheated border guards in Guatemala, ate pupusas in El Salvador and went underground in Mexico City after becoming embroiled in local politics. His travels outside the (lower) 48 states lasted for seven and one half years.

His book titled "Years On and Other Travel Essays" received the 2011 Peace Corps Writers Travel Book award. Previous nominees included "Whispering Campaign; Stories from Mesoamerica"(2009) and "Peace Corps Chronology: 1961-2010" (2010). His book "South of the Frontera; A Peace Corps Memoir received a commendation from U.S. Congressman John Garamendi (CA, 10th Dist.)