National Writers Series: An Evening with Benjamin Busch
The chapters of author, actor and photographer Benjamin Busch's life have
circled back and folded in on themselves in mysterious and moving ways. A
former U.S. Marine Corps officer who served two combat tours in Iraq, Ben
returned to the U.S. to play a Marine in HBO's Generation Kill, where he
pretended to invade towns he had actually invaded in the line of duty.
The intersection of combat and art continued to play a pivotal role in
Ben's career; he produced multiple photo exhibits of Iraq that have toured
the U.S., and he played narcotics officer Anthony Coliccio on The Wire,
David Simon's masterful HBO series on the U.S.'s war on drugs. Ben also
appeared on Homicide and The West Wing.
Ben's searing new memoir, Dust to Dust, reflects a complicated relationship
between destruction and creation. In themed chapters such as "Water,"
"Metal," "Bone," and "Blood," Ben reflects on his rural upbringing, his
combat training, his relationship with his father—acclaimed novelist
Frederick Busch—and, most poignantly, his own mortality, his family and
the natural world.
Doug Stanton hosted the onstage conversation with Benjamin Busch and was delighted and albeit surprised at Ben's approach to the evening. Ben's entrance and staging of the evenings' conversation is a must see!