Ben East Books

Category: Uncategorized

  • Coming Very Soon

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    Ben East
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    The Second World War II had Catch 22. The Global War on Terror will have:

  • Ice Cream in Harpers Ferry

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    Ben East
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      Yesterday In Harper’s Ferry Seated between my boys I ate an ice cream cone In the sun. In public. “This is good, dad.” “This is good.” #Americanah  

  • You’re not anti-social

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    Ben East
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    Dear fellow writers and artists, The Washington Post on Friday helped explain your anti-social tendencies. Revelation: you’re not misanthropic; you’re smart. What you’re working on has been equated to finding the cure for cancer. Research published last month in the British Journal of Psychology by two evolutionary psychologists from the London School of Economics and Singapore…

  • Foreign Service Writers

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    Ben East
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    The March issue of the Foreign Service Journal covers the annual book fair and includes a call for FS-affiliated writers to submit news of forthcoming and recently published books for the November round up. Authors are also invited to submit work for review on this blog: I recently reviewed retired FSO James F. O’Callaghan’s No Circuses. See below. From the FSJ…

  • Peace Corps Week–Third Goal

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    Ben East
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    Peace Corps Week celebrates President Kennedy’s establishment of the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. This year is the 55th anniversary of the Peace Corps, and service never ends. Peace Corps Volunteers go on to become Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), because there is always the third goal: bringing the experience home to promote a better understanding…

  • Wiggle Room and Windmills for the Democrats

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    Ben East
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    Having re-cast the 2016 Republican presidential contenders as their literary counterparts, I’m taking a look at the Democrats. Hillary Let’s keep gender out of this. Gender—like all demographic attributes—neither qualifies nor disqualifies a candidate for my vote. It would be just as sexist to vote for HRC because she is a woman as it would be not to vote for her because is…

  • A Confederacy of (Political) Dunces

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    Ben East
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    I enjoy politics. And I enjoy books. So I’ve put the two together and re-cast the 2016 presidential contenders as their literary counterparts. Today, the Republicans. Jeb Before the weekend I had  Bush playing Ignatius J. Reilly. His shuffling campaign had all the promise of a college-educated person pushing a hot dog cart around the Big Easy.…

  • Infidelities for Valentine’s Day

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    Ben East
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    It’s just like Michael Hemmingson to be gone. Just when I wanted to thank him for his black Valentine’s Day messages. There’s a world of hurt in his collection Pictures of Houses with Water Damage (Black Lawrence Press, 2010). It’s a numbed kind of hurt, the kind of pain felt after a breakup, whether you wanted to…

  • Inertia: What’s Under the Writer’s Hood?

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    Ben East
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    Writer Jason Howell hosts a weekly Q&A with writers & readers on his blog, mostly aimed at the place where writing, reading, and life intersect. This week’s question(s): What gets you back on the horse again? Keeps you trying? I was grateful for the chance to chime in this week. Stop by and see the range of responses. Post your own in…

  • Reviewers’ resource

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    Ben East
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    If you’re looking to sink your teeth into reviewing books, Atticus Review is a good place to start. You can hear from their book review editor, Sam Slaughter, at Citizen Lit. He offers up a few thoughts on the art of the review and his approach to guiding writers in the process. Listen to the whole thing…