Ben Mauk

Biography

Ben Mauk is a writer based in Berlin. He last wrote for the magazine about an indigenous rights movement in the Russian Caucasus. His VQR debut, “The Useful Village,” was a finalist for the 2018 National Magazine Award in Feature Writing.

See Work

ESSAYS / Fall 2022

Shadows, Tokens, Spring

By Ben Mauk ,  Illustration by Enrique Quintero

A Plague Journey
REPORTING / Spring 2019

Mountain of Tongues

By Ben Mauk ,  Photography by Thomas Dworzak

Can a nationalist movement from the internet save the world’s most scattered people? 

Photograph by Thomas Dworzak
REPORTING / Spring 2017

The Useful Village

By Ben Mauk ,  Photography by Valerie Schmidt ,  Illustrations by George Butler

In the fall of 2015, Germany designated Sumte, population 102, as a sanctuary for nearly 800 refugees. What followed was a living experiment in the country’s principles.

Sumte, Lower Saxony, Germany