Pleased to announce Neill Mckee’s biography, Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah, is nominated for a 2019 New Mexico / Arizona Book Award. The contest, accepting award entries from both self-publishing and large national presses, is sponsored by the New Mexico Book Coop, a non-profit literacy and professional development organization. Winners are to be announced November 9.
McKee‘s biography is an honest, buoyant chronicle of a young Canadian’s adventures during 1968–70, while teaching secondary school as a CUSO volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia. Readers with interests in history and travel of Southeast Asia, language learning and teaching, and volunteering abroad for social service organizations, will find this book an inspiring read.
“McKee’s work proves the notion that every journey is undertaken at least as much through the inner world as it is through the outer. From the vast open spaces of Canada tothe jungles of Borneo, and from youth through the straits of teaching, traveling, and growing, McKee takes us on a Motorcycle Diaries-type journey, as written by a man who would become a filmmaker, an expert in international development, and a father. The world that we follow McKee through, almost like ghosts floating over his shoulder, is one of true friends and near misses, one that is familiar and foreign in equal parts. If McKee’s first journey was to Borneo, and his second into his own unknown future, we get to take his third journey with him, back into the land of what-was. Finding Myself in Borneo is a beautifulbook about a brilliant life—a rare read.”
—Michael Buckley, short story writer: mikebuckleyauthor.com
McKee holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Calgary–Alberta and a Master of Science in Communication from Florida State University–Tallahassee. His international career spanned 45-years—as a filmmaker, media producer, and cultural explorer—traveling on assignments to over 80 countries, and living and working for 18 years in Asia, Africa and Russia.