Ben East Books

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  • CURRY PATTA, JUNGLE OATS, AND PEACE CORPS

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    Ben East
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    My wife keeps a curry plant to flavor her beautiful Indian cooking. Our boys have taken to snapping off the greenest leaves and eating them raw. Their chewing fills the air with a sharp, fresh scent. Yesterday, the plant was brought indoors—frost—to spend the night on our low kitchen table. When the boys found it…

  • Post Season Baseball–Guts

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    Ben East
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    To kick off Major League Baseball’s season of glory: a short story about baseball featuring steroids, breast milk, and courage. From Guts, first published by Atticus Review September 2012. That sweet curving thumb of mine put a wild spin on every ball I threw. Curveballs, sliders, pitches that dropped four inches just before the plate. Northern…

  • New York Times Responsible for Flow of ISIS Volunteers

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    Ben East
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    The hyperbole above is intended in jest, of course, an eye-catching headline to mimic today’s lead story on NYT’s home page. It’s the Times’ second such sensational headline on the subject this week. America Steps Up Fight to Stem Flow of ISIS Volunteers Click to the story, however, and a different picture emerges. Suddenly the…

  • Calling Out the Grey Lady

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    Ben East
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    Today the @NYTimes posted a teaser making it sound as if “radicalized young Muslim Americans” are “flowing” into Syria to join the fight there. Flowing? The article itself indicates that “American law enforcement and intelligence officials say more than 100 Americans have gone to Syria, or tried to so far.” Let’s do the math. In…

  • Great Writing by Podcast

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    Ben East
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    You only need about 11 minutes 30 seconds (less if you skip the intro!) to listen to Jess Walter read his short story “Cheston”. Damn funny. Visit Episode 1 of A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment. Stick around longer and hear another great piece by Sherman Alexie.  

  • Publicity

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    Ben East
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    The New York Times carries this thoughtful piece by Teddy Wayne on writers’ uses of social media to promote their work. Its a reminder of the line between shameless braggadocio and good-faith efforts to put our work before the public eye.  

  • Finalists for Dundee Book Prize Announced

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    Ben East
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    Amy Mason of Bristol and Rachel Fenton of Auckland both move on to the final round. May their hearts pound with healthy anticipation until the winner is announced in October! Extracts from their work, and the work of eight more shortlisted writers for the 2014 Prize, are available in e-Book format.

  • 2014 Leapfrog Fiction Contest Winner Announced

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    Ben East
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    Congrats to First-Prize Winner Gregory Hill! Looking forward to reading The Lonesome Trials of Johnny Riles when it comes out, and East of Denver in the meantime. The Lonesome Trials of Johnny Riles (novel) by Gregory Hill (Colorado) It’s autumn of 1975 and Rancher Johnny Riles is in a rough patch.  He’s drunk, he’s depressed, his…

  • Ben East or Ben East?

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    Ben East
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    The University of New Haven posted this article today: WEST HAVEN, CONN. — Look up Ben East on Amazon and adventure books pop out at you. But it’s not THAT Ben East – an American outdoorsman and writer throughout much of the last century – that we are talking about. We’re talking about Ben East,…

  • e-Book Launch: Dundee International Book Prize

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    Ben East
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    Extracts from the work of shortlisted novelists for the 2014 Dundee International Book Prize are now available in e-Book format.  Priced to move at $0.00! Congratulations to my shortlisted compadres Sheena Lambert of Dublin, Rachel Fenton of Auckland, Amy Mason of Bristol, Veronica Birch of the West Country, Rosaliene Bacchus of California, Jasper Dorgan of Wiltshire, Suzy Norman of…