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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I don’t watch Anthony Bourdain’s television programs but I understand the attraction behind them. Here’s a guy traveling the world to sample bizarre cuisine, satisfying the viewer’s appetite for the exotic and the edible. His narrative is wry, crisp, and authoritative. His locations distant to the point of being surreal. His choices of food—practically supernatural. But what happens when…
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Today I have the pleasure of interviewing an old friend who pops up at inconvenient times, Frederick Butts-Insky. He’s got a job not a lot of people know about, though he works for an organization we’re all familiar with. They are charged with protecting, among other things, the integrity of our great democracy, and I…
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I had high hopes for the Avery Dick series. Diplomatic Security (DS) Agents have some of the most colorful stories in the Foreign Service trade. They walk like cops. They talk like cops. They’re security professionals steeped the gritty detail of protective service. Their beat is peculiar: sniff out bombs and throw up barricades; investigate…
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Novelist Foreign Service Officer Returned Peace Corps Volunteer B.A. East taught English Lit and Composition in Malawi as a Peace Corps Volunteer, at Brooklyn College Academy in New York, and at the American School of Asuncion in Paraguay. Later he joined the State Department’s Foreign Service, taking assignments in Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua, Ghana, Mexico, and…
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Last month the high-flying poobas of the world donned their UNGA-wear and boarded private jets to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Oh! How they did clog the streets of Gotham in pursuit of… What exactly is it they pursued beyond a display of wealth and power? And now the UN—it’s very name suggestive of nothingness, the opposite…
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This story tells itself. A first grader gives his socks real personality. And attitude.
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With an hour til tip-off, here’s how my money rides. The number of times Trump does the following ten things: Sniffs the mic: 120+ Makes a tiny circle with his thumb and forefinger: 30+ References rigged elections: 20+ Notes Hillary’s lies: 15+ Notes Hillary’s corruption: 15+ Says “Crooked Hillary”: 12+ Lauds his business smarts: 12+…
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Here I sit, brokenhearted Came to vote but only farted.* How the air is thickening! Oh, the stink is sickening! I have to choose between these two? I’m on the throne just let me poo! I’ll never again vote absentee While squatting here, in luxury. Don’s soft wipe will be mine soon That hair of his…
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Yesterday a friend of mine posted our first-through-fourth grade photos online. Got me thinking about this old story in the hopper 20 years. I dragged it out and dusted it off and submit it now for your entertainment. It’s all about that first cigarette. This is to the memory of those no longer with us, Trevor and…
Ben East Books 