Citizenship | Literature

Select novels, short stories, and nonfiction on contemporary life.

Ben East’s nonfiction debut recounts how JFK’s bold experiment shaped diplomatic careers and influenced modern American diplomacy.

Read, Listen, Watch

Toots Town

Somewhere inside the school a child navigates a clarinet lesson, Winnie the Pooh notes reaching us, quaint and delightful and timeless.
The Great Leap

I’ll try to feel light and springy
Shutdown Freedom!

Patchworks: a government shutdown love triangle.
A Gift of Pictures

Text and photo.
Hope, Actually

Shouldn’t we rate ourselves on how our daily grind makes this world a better place?
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
Today: Midget Football

This Super Bowl, I’m rooting for The Cherry Blossoms.
Hershey Han

“I love you,” says the princess. “I know,” replies the smuggler.
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.