Voices in Wartime Anthology

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"This anthology does not contain the words of politicians or pundits," said Andrew Himes, editor of the anthology and executive producer of the film Voices in Wartime. "Instead, it 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."

240-page book
Edited by Andrew Himes with Jan Bultmann and others
Published by Whit Press, Seattle, WA - ISBN: 0-9720205-3-5

Includes poetry, essays, and narratives based on interviews conducted for the feature-length documentary film Voices in Wartime.

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:

  • 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."

Whit Press Publisher Claudia Mauro says of the book, "We are becoming strangely indifferent and dangerously numb to the often sanitized images of war we’re saturated with. The interviews and poems in the Voices in Wartime Anthology let us look straight and hard into the truth of war. Like the film, this book opens our eyes and wakes up our hearts."

Learn more about the film Voices in Wartime.