Brian Turner

La mia vita è un paese straniero

Kisses from Nick Flynn, Rebecca Makkai, Pico Iyer, Ilyse Kusnetz, Andre Dubus III, Christian Kiefer, Camille T. Dungy, Major Jackson, Bich Minh Nguyen, Terrance Hayes, Ada Limón, Honor Moore, Téa Obreht and Dan Sheehan, Kazim Ali, Beth Ann Fennelly, and others

Intimacies from Writers

The Kiss

A collection of poems by Brian Turner that were inspired by his experiences as a soldier.

Here, Bullet

Brian Turner is one of this country's best known and best-loved poets and also one of its most determined conservationists. In this beautifully illustrated anthology he brings together both old and new essays, columns, articles and poetry that concentrate on the wild places and outdoor pursuits he loves and of which he is such an unabashed, articulate and passionate champion.

A Back Country Miscellany

Into the Wider World

In 2003, Sergeant Brian Turner was at the head of a convoy of 3,500 US soldiers as they entered the Iraqi desert. Now, still stalked by conflict, he retraces his war experience and meditates on the echoes between his story and those of generations of soldiers marching to battle before him. Spanning pre-deployment to combat zone, World War I to Vietnam, boredom to bloodlust, roadside bombs to open mic nights, My Life as a Foreign Country asks what it means to be a soldier and a human being. ‘The most haunting book I read this year’ Irish Times ‘His shrapnel-like chapters come at you from all angles... Compulsive’ Guardian ‘Turner is a soldier with the soul of a poet’ Daily Telegraph ‘Wrathful, wry and incantatory’ Erica Wagner, New Statesman ‘Beautiful, electrifying and full of pain’ Washington Post

My Life as a Foreign Country

In 2003, Sergeant Brian Turner was at the head of a convoy of 3,500 soldiers as they entered the Iraqi desert. Ten years later, he lies awake beside his sleeping wife, hallucinating: he is a drone aircraft. He hovers over a landscape in which the terrains of every conflict, of Bosnia and Vietnam, Iraq and Northern Ireland, the killing fields of Cambodia and the death camps of Europe, are pressed together, and the violence is ongoing. The hallucination recurs, and every night Sergeant Turner is forced to observe anew all that man has done to man. My Life as a Foreign Country follows the experience of one soldier in one recent war âe" the preparations, actions, homecomings and infinite aftermath âe" but then explodes from those narrow limits. Unburdened by nostalgia, hollow sympathy or a journalistic hunger for fact, this account combines the recalled with the imagined, and leaps centuries and continents to seek parallels in the histories of other men. The result is an opportunity to enter the head of a man still stalked by war, to experience conflict with new definition and lasting effect.

Taste of Summer

A soldier struggles to reintegrate, exploring the foundations of the psyche and how history instructs identity.

Phantom Noise

Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and Alice James’ own Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraqi war veteran Brian Turner writes power-fully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty, and skill. Based on Turner’s yearlong tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully rendered, unflinching description but, remarkably, leave the reader to draw conclusions or moral lessons. Here, Bullet is a must-read for anyone who cares about the war, regardless of political affiliation.

Susan Rich

Catherine Barnett

Jared Hawkley

Original and reprinted essays by contemporary poets who have spent time abroad address questions of estrangement, identity and home. These reflections represent a diverse atlas of experience and include work by Kazim Ali, Elizabeth Bishop, Naomi Shihab Nye, Nick Flynn, Charles Simic, Alissa Valles and others. Original.

Poets Writing Across Borders

The Strangest of Theatres

It's the 1950s and the Cold War is raging. Danny and Josie-they couldn't be more different when they meet. Beautiful, petite Josie joins the Air Force to escape her home and put some adventure in her life. The quiet, intelligent girl from small-town Quebec meets Danny, the tough, street-wise kid from the West, and they fall in love. They begin their life together at an Air Force base on Canada's West Coast. Their best friends, Ollie and Russ, support them through good times and bad. The two couples call themselves the 'Fearsome Foursome, ' and they share often-hilarious adventures as they explore their new home, breaking all the rules as they go. When off-duty they howl with Danny's crewmates, the 'Wild Dogs' of D Crew. They try to live a life as carefree as the sea and mountains around them-but there are unseen currents ready to drag them under, and heights that may be too high to climb. As they struggle with all the external and internal pressures on their relationship, bad choices by each of them tear at its fabric-until their love is ultimately tested on a dark and lonely country road.

Kye Bay

Chris Hedges

Jonathan Shay

Chris Abani

Rachel Bentham

Emily Warn

Sinon Antoon

John Stallworthy

Andrew Himes

The Voices in Wartime Anthology explores the experience of war through the literary arts from ancient times to the present. The anthology includes the voices of US veterans of the Iraq war; experts on war trauma and the history of war; and poets from around the world. It includes poetry, essays, and narratives based on interviews conducted for the feature-length documentary film Voices in Wartime. The book features active-duty soldiers, veterans, torture victims, war correspondents, the families of the disappeared and the dead, poets, peace activists--the compelling responses of unique, individual human beings to the experience of war. Their poetry springs from unrelenting honesty, personal grief and deep compassion, and is infused with an understanding of hardship and suffering.The Voices in Wartime Anthology explores the experience of war through the literary arts from ancient times to the present. The anthology features the voices of US veterans of the Iraq war; experts on war trauma and the history of war; and poets from around the world. It includes:Jose Diaz, US Army Reserve military policeman and father of two. He returned to the US in the fall of 2004 after serving a year's deployment in Iraq as a military police sergeant in the Army Reserves. Brian Turner, who earned an MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) from the University of Oregon, and then served in the US Army for seven years. He was an infantry team leader in Iraq for a year beginning November 2003, and served with the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Lt. General William Lennox, superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on American war poetry. Paul Mysliwiec, US Army First Lieutenant who led his unit through the invasion of Baghdad in spring 2003 and then spent months searching for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Jonathan Shay, psychiatrist for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston. Shay treats combat veterans with severe psychological injuries and is the author of the best-selling books "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character," and "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming." Emily Warn, a poet, teacher, and activist--and the author of "The Novice Insomniac" and three other collections of poetry. Chris Hedges, a former "New York Times" war correspondent with 15 years of experience in places such as El Salvador, Kosovo, and the Persian Gulf. He shared a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of global terrorism. Andrew Himes, Executive Producer of Voices in Wartime and director of Beyond Wartime. David Connolly, poet and veteran who served honorably in Vietnam with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Wilfred Owen, British soldier-poet during the First World War. Died in combat a week before the Armistice in 1918. Alix Wilber, novelist and Co-Executive Producer of Voices in Wartime. Jonathan Schell, author of Unconquerable World, and Fate of the Earth. Craig White, NBC cameraman, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, one of the first US Army units to enter Baghdad in April 2003. Sinan Antoon, Iraqi poet, filmmaker, and human rights activist. Chris Abani, Nigerian human rights activist and refugee. Nguyen Duy, widely considered the most important Vietnamese poet of his generation. Antonieta Villamil, Columbian poet, peace and human rights activist. Sheila Sebron, disabled, African-American Air Force veteran living with chronic PTSD and severe pain. John Henry Parker, veteran and founder of Veterans and Families. "If history and literature have taught us anything," said anthology editor and film producer Andrew Himes, "it is that in the midst of trauma, violence and death, it is the poets who help us make sense of the senseless. In a world turned upside down, listening attentively to the stories of others can open our hearts, our minds, and point the way to change."

The Anthology

Voices in Wartime

Jessica H. Clark

In Brill'Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society, Jessica H. Clark and Brian Turner compile original case studies that examine how Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman societies addressed – or failed to address – their military defeats and casualties of war.

Brill’s Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society

In 2003, Sergeant Brian Turner was at the head of a convoy of 3,500 US soldiers as they entered the Iraqi desert. Now, still stalked by conflict, he retraces his war experience and meditates on the echoes between his story and those of generations of soldiers marching to battle before him. Spanning pre-deployment to combat zone, World War I to Vietnam, boredom to bloodlust, roadside bombs to open mic nights, My Life as a Foreign Country asks what it means to be a soldier and a human being. âe~The most haunting book I read this yearâe(tm) Irish Times âe~His shrapnel-like chapters come at you from all anglesâe¦ Compulsiveâe(tm) Guardian âe~Turner is a soldier with the soul of a poetâe(tm) Daily Telegraph âe~Wrathful, wry and incantatoryâe(tm) Erica Wagner, New Statesman âe~Beautiful, electrifying and full of painâe(tm) Washington Post

My Life As a Foreign Country

A celebration of New Zealand's special wild places by its finest poet. Brian Turner is one of this country's best known and best - loved poets and also one of its most determined conservationists. In this beautifully illustrated anthology, with photos by Grahame Sydney and Gilbert Van Reenan, he brings together both old and new essays, columns, articles and poetry that concentrate on the wild places and outdoor pursuits he loves and of which he is such an unabashed, articulate and passionate champion.

Brian Turner

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