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

ONE DEAD COP

Taillights cut a pool of red in the dark where three African heavies in police uniform manned the makeshift roadblock. A fourth figure loomed over the driver-side door two cars up. The cops held their rifles clumsily. Probably they were cops, Raines thought. Criminals in the West African Republic handled weapons better than the police…
GUTS

George craves the syringe with an addict’s distress. I have one thumb on the plunger. I put the other in his mouth. The plastic syringe tip curves along my crooked thumb between George’s lips. I press the plunger carefully and let the milk flow.The ruddy face of Senator Teflon–that’s my name for him–fills the television. He…
Heaven Is Coming Home, Part II

…David’s richly textured writing reads like romantic poetry. Yet there is a clarity to the telling born of steady revelation in sign and image. The narrator, like an expert kite handler, works his string in concert with the wind to lead the colors of his craft across our minds’ eye. As our protagonist Rovin,…
Do You Read?

I wish more people were reading books. Here’s what I’m reading: Heaven Is Coming Home, by David Suarez Gomez.