Hugh Martin is a graduate of Muskingum University and completed his MFA at Arizona State in May, 2012. He served six years in the Army National Guard as an M1A1 Tanker and spent 11 months in Iraq. His poetry centers on the narratives that crossed his path as a soldier, with a goal "to make each section vivid and strong enough to give the reader a clear idea of what each soldier is like as a human being."

Martin's work has appeared in CONSEQUENCE Magazine, Mid-American Review, Nashville Review, and is forthcoming in Gargoyle, Third Coast, and the American Poetry Review. His chapbook, So, How Was the War? (Kent State UP, 2010) was published by the Wick Poetry Center, and was selected as part of the 7th Avenue Streetscape Series in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. In the summer of 2011 he taught introductory creative writing classes at the National University of Singapore. He will be a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University in the fall of 2012.

Klappentext

Iraq war veteran's Poulin Prize-winning debut poetry collection explores war, masculinity, and return to civilian life. Introduction by Cornelius Eady.

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Table of Contents

M-16A2 Assault Rifle 5

I.
Spring in Jalula 7
The Stick Soldiers 9
The Global War on Terrorism 10
The Jalula Market 11
Responding to an Explosion in Qarah Tappah 13
First Engagement 14

II.
Nights in the Quadrilateral Pool of Sawdust and Sweat 17
The Summer of Crawling 19
The Range 20
Basic Training 21
Full Moon, M2 Machine Gun 22
Tomorrow, We Go Up North 23
Four-Letter Word 24

III.
Observation Post 29
Raid 31
Nocturne, Traffic Control Point 32
Friday Night, FOB Cobra 33
Pictures of the War 36
After Curfew 37
The Rocket 38
Causeway Overwatch 39
Desert Nocturne 40

IV.
The War Was Good, Thank You 42
Demobilization 44
Home From Iraq, Larry's Tavern 45
Barracks Dream 46
Firework Elegy 47
First Snow 48

V.
Doc's Kill 50
Ways of Looking at an IED 51
Green Dreams 53
Site 947: A Situation Report 54
The Burn Pit at FOB Cobra 55
This Morning, We Carry Body Bags 57
Nocturne with Sandstorm 58

VI.
Nostos: Quinn's Bar, Cleveland Heights 60