Ben East Books

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.

The figures highlighted here tracked looted antiquities after the invasion of Iraq, re-established diplomacy in Afghanistan after 9/11, and secured village infrastructure while war raged in Vietnam. As hostages in Iran, they maintained diplomatic discipline to bridge a volatile cultural divide. These are individuals of deep courage and conviction, whether integrating a southern U.S. high school or finding comfort in African village beliefs to cope with personal tragedy.

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Novels

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  • GREEN

    When the Peace Corps recruiter called to offer Pete Seward a position teaching English in Malawi Seward asked, “Where’s that?” “Africa.” Seward thought about that.  Where the application had asked for geographical preferences, Seward had written: “Anywhere in the Pacific.  Definitely not Africa.”  So he reminded the recruiter of this. “I do see that.  But,…

  • Review (Niger) – A Dry and Thirsty Land

    A Dry and Thirsty Land: The Misadventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa – by Bryant Wieneke (Niger 1974–76) Mr. Wieneke’s engaging 60,000-word memoir contains all the stuff of Peace Corps legend, from encounters with exotic insects and large snakes to bouts of diarrhea and Malarial fever. It also contains a large dose of the question:…

  • THIS IS HOW WE TWEET

      Assistant Secretary Crickshaw wants to tweet. His request (order) reaches us in Electronic Media via the staff aides in the front office, setting in motion a whole series of actions that repeat the actions of the day before and the day before that, all the way back to the day we first tweeted, which…

  • 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.

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