Citizenship | Literature
Select novels, short stories, and nonfiction on contemporary life.
What began as a bold experiment in grassroots service produced future ambassadors to help guide U.S. diplomacy through seven decades of global upheaval.
Read, Listen, Watch
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Years ago I traveled the sands of Saudi Arabia, stopping along the way to tour the old camel train forts. I visited these caravanserai along the Hejaz Railway, the line targeted by T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. My journeys between 2003-05 took me north from Jeddah through…
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Rajasthan is desert country, 70% of the state—India’s largest—an arid mix of scrub and sand. We trekked by camel into the Thar Desert about 50 km outside Jaisalmer. Abdullah led our beasts on foot, their names Simon, Paulos, and—inexplicably—Johnny No. 1. Toward sunset we reached the Sam Dunes. The wind died down and we made…
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An ugly and violent upward trend divides us along ethnic lines today. In order to stay sane in the face of this spreading and dangerous hate, one need only look to Walter Sobchak, the right-wing nut job Vietnam vet (and convert to Judaism!) from The Big Lebowski… His utter disdain for his own dirty underwear…
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I’ve turned the tables on fellow indie writer and keen author interviewer Matthew Whiteside, who describes his Uniweb Productions website as A place for creativity, hope, inspiration, and all around good times. Anyone familiar with his interviews knows about the good times. But what about the hope and inspiration? What about the creativity? Find out…
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I am asked, “A book begins as an idea in the writer’s imagination. Eventually, this grain of sand turns into a pearl. What was the grain of sand that fired your imagination?” I respond: Orwellian signs in the DC Metro: “IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.” See what, exactly? Commuters staring empty-eyed at phones while…
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Featuring two new resources for writers: Dactyl Review and Marylee MacDonald’s coaching blog. I came upon the first after engaging with the second by following the primary law of social media: be social. A quick exchange on Marylee’s blog pointed me the way to Dactyl Review, opening up a whole new platform for publishing book…
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This review just slays it. Jason Overdorf hunts with a sharp pen and takes down Dane Huckelbridge’s narrative about what would seem a brutally interesting topic. And he doesn’t stop there. He spills ink like blood all over the slain author’s enablers: “He is not without accomplices in this crime against the English language, either.…
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Creative writing is a walk along a fine line. That line divides the seen and the unseen, the knowable and the unknown, the past and the future, cause and effect. Sanity and madness. Creative writers tread by feel to bridge the one and the other. For some the means is poetry. For others, memoir, essay,…
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It would be easy to give in to rage over this image in the NRA’s official organ, The American Rifleman. It would be natural and normal to descend into name-calling against them. But that’s exactly what the NRA wants, isn’t it? Emotional contagion. Rather than express my disgust at this callous provocation to violence, I’ll…
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Previously blogged: Oscar KeyE is Dead. Long Live Oscar Keye. Rather than dwell on my dislike for all things Oscar Awards, trying to unravel the reasons for my disdain, I’ll revisit one thing I do love about Oscar: his utility as an early alter-ego. ‘Oscar Keye is dead and I am free,’ I wrote in…
Ben East Books 