![Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War by [Brown, Randy]](https://images-fe.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51szDYcxEvL._SY346_.jpg)
WHY WE WRITE: CRAFT ESSAYS ON WRITING WAR is a necessarily "specialized" collection, with contributions from more than sixty writers. Like most anthologies, the quality and readability varies from one writer to the next. But on the whole I was caught up in these short essays, most of them no more than a few pages. There are no "famous" writers here, except perhaps for Phil Klay, whose first book, REDEPLOYMENT, won the National Book Award several years back. To the general reading public, however, most of the contributors will be new, although some of them have been working at their craft for years. I recognized several of them, from their books, and through social media contacts. I have read, for example, David Abrams' novel, FOBBIT; Thomas Ricks' MAKING THE CORPS; and SEE ME FOR WHO I AM, an anthology edited by David Chrisinger. I have also sampled some of the poetry of Randy Brown (the book's co-editor, with Steve Leonard), and Eric Chandler, as well as stories by Teresa Fazio and Jerri Bell.
How to write about essays as varied as these? Well, I guess I'll just highlight a few things that stood out for me and why. I'll start with Ben Wilbert's "Basic Training Teaches More than Marching and Maneuvers," in which he notes that -
"For many, the military represents a highpoint of excitement. What they see and do - where they go - during time in uniform achieves levels seldom repeated in later civilian life … Service members and veterans sometimes turn to writing as a natural cathartic response to capture, process, or purge feelings related to the experience."
Indeed. Wilbert's words made me remember all over again, the excitement of my first enlistment, straight out of high school, and my postings to Turkey and Germany - exotic places and heady experiences for a small town eighteen-to-twenty year-old kid. And there was Bill McCloud's comment in "Recovering the Rhythm of War," that "My family still has 52 letters that I wrote home to my parents during my year in Vietnam." Those letters, he tells us, resulted in his 2017 book of poems, THE SMELL OF LIGHT: VIETNAM, 1968-1969. He notes further, "that writing that book had started decades earlier, letter by letter." Again, I get it. My folks saved my letters too. And forty years later I published my own Cold War memoir based on those letters.
And there is war correspondent Carmen Gentile's admission in "Some True Lies about Conflict Reporting" that the "real reason why" he travels to far-flung dangerous places to report on war is "It's a rush." He later adds, "Bottom line: There is something probably seriously wrong with me. That's probably the closest answer to the truth about what I do - and why I do it - that I'll ever give." Now there is some chilling honesty for you.
Afghanistan veteran Chad Corrigan ("Sharing Stories of Service Between Generations"), in explaining why he writes, tells us about his veteran grandfather, who would never talk about his war -
"The Francis Ferreira that I knew was a kind, loving straight-talking retired barber who had served in World War II. Unfortunately his war stories would die with him. I did not want the same to happen with me."
He notes too that his multiple deployments added up to four missed years of his sons' childhoods. "My goal is to fill in some of the blind spots … They deserve to know."
And in "A Passage of Lines: Starting a Literary Journal," Christopher Lyke tells of his late enlistment at the age of 30, when he had "already established a working life." I could relate. I reenlisted at age 32. But unlike Lyke, who was a "grunt sergeant in Afghanistan," I was trained as a Russian linguist and deployed again to Germany.
I still write, although I couldn't call my current output a "literary journal," as Lyke does. It's just a daily journal. As poet and Air Force veteran Eric Chandler notes, "I write to figure things out. I write to create a record of what has happened to me." ("'It' Shoots: Zen and Writing")
These are only a few of the things that leapt out at me as I perused this fascinating collection of essays about writing and why we do it. I also made notes of things from some writers here that I hope to read later on - Teresa Fazio's upcoming memoir, FIDELIS; Rachel Kambury's novel of WWII, GRAVEL, which she wrote before graduating from high school! Or Wayne Johnson's memoir, THE MILITARIZED ZONE: WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE ARMY, GRANDPA? Or more of the several books by Michael Lund, whose essay, "My Grandfather's Thumb," caught me up. But enough. This is a great collection. Especially for enthusiasts of war writing and stories from the military life. I enjoyed it tremendously, immensely. "Bigly." Buy it, read it.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )
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TimBazzett | Jan 1, 2020 | edit |
Product Description
For military service members, veterans, and families—and all those who write about them!
Tap into PUBLISHING INSPIRATIONS, WRITING MARKETS, and CREATIVE TECHNIQUES with advice from MORE THAN 60 BEST-SELLING, ESTABLISHED, and EMERGING AUTHORS of military, national security, and war topics!
Whether you're writing military-themed genre fiction or literary non-fiction, strategy or policy analysis, history or journalism, or even modern war poetry, Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War puts an arsenal of innovation and expertise at your fingertips!
Choose your weapons: Podcasts! Memoirs! Novels! Book reviews! Short stories! Op-Ed essays! And more!
Entertaining, informal, and accessible, this first-ever Military Writers Guild-sponsored anthology is ideal for:
- Aspiring writers & practicing professionals
- Writing workshops
- Classroom discussions of war literature, literary history, and popular culture
- Professional development forums
Contributors include such leading authors as:
- Phil Klay (Redeployment)
- Vanya Eftimova Bellinger (Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of “On War”)
- David Abrams (Fobbit and Brave Deeds)
- Alex Finley (Victor in the Rubble and Victor in the Jungle)
- Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (Ashley’s War and The Dressmaker of Khair Khana)
- Thomas E. Ricks (Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom; The Generals; Fiasco; The Gamble)
- Kate Germano (Fight Like a Girl: The Truth Behind How Female Marines are Trained)
- Peter Van Buren (We Meant Well and Hooper’s War)
- Kori Schake (Safe Passage; Warriors and Citizens)
- Max Brooks (World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War)
- Jessica Scott (The Coming Home; Falling; and Homefront romance series)
- Carmen Gentile (Blindsided by the Taliban: A Journalist's Story of War, Trauma, Love, and Loss)
- Hugh Martin (In Country; Stick Soldiers; and So, How Was the War?)
- Robert L. Bateman (No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident and Digital War: A View from the Front Lines)
- P.W. Singer & August Cole (Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War)