“I was like an inept spy pretending to be American based on movies I’d watched and books I’d read.” — Lauren Ho…
Book Review: Lauren Hough’s ‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing’ and Sari Fordham’s ‘Wait for God to Notice’
New Memoir: Solitaire by Lauren Hough (Part II)
Part II of II I should’ve been more concerned when someone fingered the words “Die Dike” into the dust on my r…
New Memoir: Solitaire by Lauren Hough (Part I)
Part I of II My first time at the closest gay bar to Shaw Air Force Base, the bouncer asked me if I had…
Thoughts on the Zombie Apocalypse
A piece about who finds zombie narratives compelling and why.
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Some Thoughts on the Assassination of Osama bin Laden
During my first tour in Afghanistan in 2005, I was one of those who still thought that the war was justified a…
New Interview from Larry Abbott: “The Visual Diary of Danish Soldier Henrik Andersen”
Art After War: The Visual Diary of Danish Soldier Henrik Andersen As the memory of U.S. participation in the Afghanis…
New Nonfiction by Krista Puttler: “Traversing the Gate of Tears”
Dubai is one gigantic, grey strip mall. “Does anyone know why they call this place Dubai?” I look away from my bus wi…
New Fiction from Steve Bills: “Bombing Pearl Harbor”
29 April 1971 From: Naval Science Department To: Midshipmen Second Class, Navigation and Piloting 301 (NAV 301) Subje…
New Poetry by Marty Krasney: “Where We Are Now”
New poem by Marty Krasney: “Where We Are Now”
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New Poetry by Matthew Hummer: “Amortization”
New poem by Matthew Hummer: “Amortization”
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New Poetry by Linnea George: “Course Correction”
New poem by Linnea George: “Course Correction”
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New Nonfiction from Kevin Honold: “The People of Cain”
But vnto Kain and to his offering he had no regarde: wherefore Kain was exceeding wroth, and his countenance f…
New Fiction by Sándor Jászberény: “Honey”
1. A rocket hit the village. I woke up to the sound of the explosion. My eyes widened, I jumped out of bed, put on my…
New Nonfiction by Dean Hosni: “The Cartoon War”
October 6, 1973. Los Angeles. The stack of newspapers sat in front of me on the brown shag carpet, and next to it was…
New Fiction by Adrian Bonenberger: “King Tide”
We’d been expecting the fascists for a few days but they’d gotten hung up on Newark. Usually they moved fast. C…
Peter Molin’s “Strike Through the Mask!”: The Clock Strikes Twelve
My year-long run as guest-columnist for The Wrath-Bearing Tree comes to an end this month. I’m not sure if WBT founde…
New Fiction by J. Malcolm Garcia: “An Arrangement”
I escaped to America after my fiancé, Farhid, died. He was an officer in the Afghan National Army in Bagarm when he w…
New Fiction by Jesse Rowell: “Second Skin”
Alpert Nelsen had lost a toe. He just didn’t know it yet. Not a big toe. One of the smaller ones. It got infected whe…
New Nonfiction by Larry Abbott: The Photographic Self-Portraits of Ron Whitehead
There Is No Such Thing as an Unwounded Soldier Ron Whitehead works in a variety of photographic series: Eye of the S…
So Say We All and Wrath-Bearing Tree Collaborate!
In collaboration with So Say We All‘s Veterans Writing Division, founder Justin Hudnall and The Wrath-Bearing T…
New Fiction by Nancy Ford Dugan: “Flow”
So, Abe, the pleasant guy who buzzes you in every week at the bubbled-roof tennis facility, takes your thick wad of c…
Wild Delights: Patrick Hicks Interviews Brian Turner
Patrick Hicks: Brian Turner earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and taught English in South Korea for …
New Fiction by Todd Easton Mills: “When Beauty is Convulsive”
From his notebook, illustrated with a picture of a four-eyed flower: We live in a bungalow in Pasadena, California, w…
New Review from Larry Abbott: “Corn, Coal & Yellow Ribbons” and “Midnight Cargo”
Corn, Coal & Yellow Ribbons. Poems by Kevin Basl and Nathan Lewis. Trumansburg, NY: Out of Step Press, 2021. Mid…
Peter Molin’s “Strike Through the Mask!”: Fallujah-Korengal/Korengal-Fallujah
In my blog Time Now: The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in Art, Film, and Literature I rarely reviewed memoir and non-f…
New Poetry by Abena Ntoso: “Dear Melissa”
New poem by Abena Ntoso: “Dear Melissa”
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New Fiction by LN Lewis: “Her Boyfriend Felipe”
“You must really like mango.” The girl lifts them, one, two, three, and puts them in the paper bag, but it’s me she i…
New Fiction by Gordon Laws: “Make Their Ears Heavy, Shut Their Eyes”
I know a deaf man who was once shopping in a general store. A stranger in town was also in the store, and he observed…
New Review by Michael Gruber: “The Myth of the Clean Air War”
A review of Kimberly K. Dougherty’s Airpower in Literature: Interrogating the Clean War, 1915-2015 One of war’s most …
Peter Molin’s “Strike Through the Mask!”: Memory and Memoir in Afghanistan
The opening of this month’s column repeats much of a Time Now: The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in Art, Film, and Lit…
New Nonfiction from Michael Gruber: Review of J. Malcolm Garcia’s “Most Dangerous, Most Unmerciful: Stories from Afghanistan”
Humanity in Afghanistan For the average American G.I. who served in Afghanistan, the country was of a different world…
New Fiction from Kirsten Eve Beachy: “Soft Target”
For Sallie. By Picture Day in November, Sophie had perfected the downward stab and counting to twenty. She clenched h…
New Fiction from Chris Daly: “The Rothko Report”
“My father’s work takes you to the edge of the abyss and invites you to look.” -Son of Rothko …
Peter Molin’s “Strike Through the Mask!”: Interment at Arlington
The vet read that the hero’s burial ceremony in Arlington Cemetery was taking place the following Tuesday. As it happ…
New Fiction from Kate Sullivan: “All Sales Final”
GoodSouthernBoy™ is born to a RegularAmericanFamily! in Tennessee. You won’t learn where exactly, and if you do, you …
New Fiction by Joe Millsap: Dreamland
Muhamet reaches for a plastic water bottle resting on the metal filing cabinet that serves as a nightstand. He drinks…
New Nonfiction from F. Ahmeti: Bunker Mentality
“The home of the Albanian belongs to God and the guest.” Kanun Durres reminds me of the Jersey Shore. The mix of fami…
New Review by Adrian Bonenberger: John Milas’ “The Militia House”
In the Mind of Madness There is a nightmare I used to have with some regularity even before my time in the military, …
Peter Molin’s “Strike Through the Mask!”: The Afterlife of Words and Deeds
A recent Los Angeles Times review of A Line in the Sand, the latest novel by Kevin Powers, the author of seminal Glob…
New Nonfiction from Andrew Davis: Korta Za: Go Home
Andrew Elliot Davis was born July 1, 1990 in Worcester, MA; his family moved to Milford, NH, where he graduated high …
New Fiction by Pavle Radonic: Murder, War and the Dead
An old unsolved murder mystery in a foreign sea-port. Ship Captain the victim, done nobody any harm. Who killed Capta…
New Fiction from Andrew Snover: Dana and the Pretzelman
The Pretzelman died yesterday. He was shot on his corner half a block from his home, and if he has family they’ll pil…
Peter Molin’s “Strike Through the Mask!”: Spotlight on MilSpeak and Middle West Presses
Major publishing house enthusiasm for war, mil, and vet-themed books has noticeably waned in the past few years, but …
Fiction by David Abrams: “Thank You”
Thank you Thank you for your service Thank you for going Thank you for coming back Thank you for not dying Thank you …
New Fiction by Cory Massaro: “Gran Flower”
I fill the big bucket with soap and water and start heading across the field. It’s early on a Sunday and Gran …
New Review from Larry Abbott: Lauren Kay Johnson’s “The Fine Art of Camouflage”
Camouflage can exist on a number of levels. There is the basic military definition of disguising personnel, eq…
New Review from Rachel Kambury: David Chrisinger’s “The Soldier’s Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Second World War”
The War of Little Things A review of David Chrisinger’s The Soldier’s Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II…
New Nonfiction from Laura Hope-Gil: “The Train”
We were staying in the youth hostel in Zermatt at the base of the Matterhorn and on a day trip to see the castle in S…
Peter Molin’s “Strike Through the Mask!”: American Veterans and the Ukrainian Crisis
Bordentown is a pleasant town located on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River about twenty miles north of Philad…
New Nonfiction by I.S. Berry: “Math and Other Things I Learned from War”
Numbers don’t lie, they say. 2 + 2 = 4. No matter how you rearrange it; no matter how you solve it. Turn it into subt…