by Joe Carvalko Excerpts from my latest book of poetry, Behind the Steel, narrate military themes, not to honor or exaggerate war, but to give meaning to what men and women in service face. As writers, who have military experience, we serve an important role of observer-narrators, a tradition that has existed in Western literature…
Letters to War and Lethe is a collection of poems about war: its deprivations, its strange gifts, and its remembrances. “Whether set in Afghanistan or an American supermarket,” writes Boston-based poet Joyce Peseroff, these poems “upset platitudes and assumptions about those who fight, what they remember, and who speaks for them.” Farzana Marie’s book, Peseroff…
When I got into the room and took all my gear off it hit me hard. What exactly it was that hit me I could only describe as an avalanche of horror and hopelessness. I felt like I was trapped in my own death. There was no way out, and I had to play the…
I’d like to share an excellent book. Katey Schultz’s 2013 Flashes of War a collection of 31 fiction short stories offering multiple perspectives to the Middle Eastern conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan. I found this book to offer an accessible “insider” view of common military experiences. Take for example the piece “MREs”; in MREs Schultz writing…