Corbett, Ben 1969-

views updated

Corbett, Ben 1969-

PERSONAL:

Born June 8, 1969, in Dubois, PA; son of Frank and Katja Corbett. Education: University of Colorado, B.A., 1998.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—P.O. Box 546, Lafayette, CO 80026. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and photographer, 1995—. Work has appeared in local and national periodicals and magazines.

MEMBER:

Colorado Press Association, Fondo Cubano de la Imagen Fotografica, Fondo Iberoamericano de Fotografia.

AWARDS, HONORS:

"Great New Writers" citation, Barnes & Noble, 2003, for This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives.

WRITINGS:

This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives, Westview Press (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

Contributor, John Miller and Aaron Kennedy, editors, Inside Cuba: The History, Culture, and Politics of an Outlaw Nation, Marlowe, 2003. Contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines, and online periodicals, including Tattoo Magazine, Easyriders, Fringe, Golf, and Relix.

SIDELIGHTS:

Freelance journalist Ben Corbett has written on numerous issues for a wide variety of periodicals, but he is best known for his book on life in modern Cuba, This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives. Corbett spent more than three years making frequent visits to Cuba, where he sought out ordinary citizens and talked to them about their standards of living, their aspirations, and how they feel about the Marxist "revolution" that has shaped the nation's fate since the 1960s. Library Journal correspondent Lee Arnold described This Is Cuba as "an honest, behind-the-scenes look at everyday Cubans dealing with life and survival." In the National Review, Mark Falcoff wrote: "Let it be said immediately that This Is Cuba is quite simply the best, the most complete, and the most devastating portrait of that unfortunate country to be found in any language." Falcoff concluded: "Corbett has performed a splendid service for his Cuban friends. He has allowed them to speak for themselves—in many cases, surely, for the first time."