The following is a recording of live readings by Brandon Caro and John Benditt. Brandon Caro is a veteran from Aphganistan who is pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing from The New School, with works featured in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Whitehouse Magazine of Contemporary Art, and elsewhere. He will be reading from his debut novel, Old Silk Road, which will be released October 13th of this year. John will also be reading from his debut novel, “The Boatmaker,” but before writing this novel he had an illustrious career as a science journalist as the editor at Scientific American and Science before being the editor-in-chief of Technology Review. As a disclaimer, Brandon's excerpt contains very strong language and profanity as well as themes of war and violence. The views expressed in this program do not express the views of WKCR, its Board of Directors, or the Trustees of Columbia University.