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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Fellow writers! The CIA has been keeping a classified dossier on public enemy number one, and I’m not talking about terrorists, coup-plotters, pirates or smugglers. I’m not even talking about an orange leadership that now denigrates Intelligence Community efforts and insults their sacrifice. No, the enemy in question, as common as the common cold, is the…
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“Your personal details aren’t the new currency, but they are the new price of admission.” The Way Inn is an exceptionally well-written novel of acute observation and creative imagery in a world both real and surreal. Will Wiles succeeds throughout with prose that is imaginative and immersive, complex and compelling. Experience the moment as the…
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Brian Francis Slattery’s keen omniscience delivers the crime story of a century, a tale grounded on history and fact—obscure Americana, strange third world realities—taking the reader from 1995 Cleveland to 1986 Sub Saharan Africa before traveling back to prohibition and a 20th century historical tour of Ukraine and Romania. Where and when are we? We are all times…
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In The Family Hightower Brian Francis Slattery unspools a tale of global crime and capitalism spanning the last century. An example of his creative storytelling: Slattery introduces one of the novel’s most noble characters when she’s already carved into a disemboweled corpse, skin all sown up in jagged stitches. Dare the reader care about this eviscerated entity as the narrative delves…
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You only need about 11 minutes 30 seconds (less if you skip the intro!) to listen to Jess Walter read his short story “Cheston”. Damn funny. Visit Episode 1 of A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment. Stick around longer and hear another great piece by Sherman Alexie.
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The New York Times carries this thoughtful piece by Teddy Wayne on writers’ uses of social media to promote their work. Its a reminder of the line between shameless braggadocio and good-faith efforts to put our work before the public eye.
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Muller can’t get a stiffy. That shouldn’t be a problem for protagonist Sam Bennett, but it is, because Sam’s wife wants a grandchild. And Sam’s daughter is married to Muller, a talented hypochondriac and flabby Renaissance man, Sam’s foil with a killer recipe for pot brownies who can’t, for the life of him, get a…
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Amy Mason of Bristol and Rachel Fenton of Auckland both move on to the final round. May their hearts pound with healthy anticipation until the winner is announced in October! Extracts from their work, and the work of eight more shortlisted writers for the 2014 Prize, are available in e-Book format.
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Congrats to First-Prize Winner Gregory Hill! Looking forward to reading The Lonesome Trials of Johnny Riles when it comes out, and East of Denver in the meantime. The Lonesome Trials of Johnny Riles (novel) by Gregory Hill (Colorado) It’s autumn of 1975 and Rancher Johnny Riles is in a rough patch. He’s drunk, he’s depressed, his…
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The University of New Haven posted this article today: WEST HAVEN, CONN. — Look up Ben East on Amazon and adventure books pop out at you. But it’s not THAT Ben East – an American outdoorsman and writer throughout much of the last century – that we are talking about. We’re talking about Ben East,…
Ben East Books 