Ben East Books

Grid of posts 2×3

  • Rocks for Lunch

    I sat here on this pile of rocks at lunch. With rain and clouds low over the region for eight of the last ten days, this afternoon’s blue sky and warm sun made for a pleasant change. As I sat on my rock pile and ate last night’s dinner of broccoli and tofu and roasted Read more

  • What I’m Reading

    This product might be a source of what folks these days call toxic masculinity, but which is really just a acting like an asshole while being a man. Read more

  • A Reported Demise

    I’m happy to report: the Peace Corps is not dead. Read more

  • A Literary Prize

    A Literary Prize

    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 Read more

  • Message in a Bulb

    I concocted a great mystery around the assumption that café lights are fragile things. In this myth, a neighborhood squirrel named Future Pelt deviled me with his mischief, leaving a riddle on my flagstone patio: the socket and intact bulb from the lights dangling overhead. The mystery goes back several weeks, when Future Pelt first Read more

  • 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 Read more