Category: Travel
-
A Literary Prize
—
by
The small gods visit us softly. So soft, sometimes, it’s possible we miss their presence altogether. Two weeks passed before I noted the happy trespass of one such deity through my recent gloom. The first inkling appeared last week, good news arriving to my in-box from another writer, a former professor, writing mentor, and current…
-
Mumbai (Slight Return)
This week I spent a few days in an old haunt. Strange, wonderful, electric Maximum City, arriving here six years ago I boarded a train with my wife and sons destined for Mumbai’s iconic Victoria Terminus and, from there, the Gateway of India. Strange city then, you hustled us into the railcar, we all full…
-
-
First Night Africa
the dancers moved us to the center of a great circle, surrounded us singing and shouting and dancing, a lump forming in my throat
-
Without a Country
Just that morning, without a visa, I’d talked my way across the border. A little patience, a little humility, small Kwacha, and Dunhill cigarettes solved the visa problem.
-
Around the World & Right Here
I would visit corners of this strange land not unlike my hometown: unknown and invisible to the world, no place of pride on any map, unsung in the guide books. Places nobody came from and nobody went to. Corn farms. Tobacco farms.
-
Travel Writing on Kingdoms
All travel writing is essentially the same. The essence shifts away from plot and in favor of setting.
-
Three Guys Diagnose
Backing into my driveway yesterday, I heard the kind of metal on asphalt screech you get when your muffler is falling off. My driveway slopes a bit, so I stopped immediately to prevent driving the tailpipe in on itself like a telescope. Then I nudged forward and the same scraping sound came again. Of course…
-
Acts of Papyrus
Why should I think of this ancient on a rainy afternoon, two days after Christmas? The answer involves a breakfast of bananas, milk, and avocado, the wrapping of gifts in discounted paper, the sound of metal scraping against asphalt beneath my car, a podcast featuring Egyptologist Kara Cooney, the aroma of black bean soup filling…
Ben East Books 