On Veteran’s Day, November 11 at 8PM: Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents Writing War: Fiction and Memoir by Veterans of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan including Matt Gallagher, author of Kaboom, Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War, Juri Jurjevics, Roy Scranton, Philip Klay and Jacob Siegel.
The reading begins at 8PM and there will be a Q&A following the readings. A $5 suggested donation includes refreshments and wine.
The Old Stone House is located at Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. 718-768-3195.
Click on read more for bios of the authors:
Matt Gallagher, author of Kaboom, Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War, joined the U.S. Army in 2005 and received a commission in the armored cavalry. Following a fifteen-month deployment in Iraq, Gallagher left the army in 2009. Originally from Reno, Nevada, he now lives in New York City. In a Wall Street Journal review, Bing West wrote of Kaboom: “Understanding that comedy best captures the irony of the human condition, Mr. Gallagher pokes fun at himself, his soldiers and those above him. Above all, Kaboom is about the day-to-day travails of a typical platoon set smack among thousands of disillusioned and war-weary Iraqis. Without a trace of sentimentality, Mr. Gallagher draws the reader into the everyday complexities of leading soldiers from every strata of American society.
Juris Jurjevics was born in Latvia during WWII and grew up in Displaced Persons camps before emigrating to the US. His first publishing job was at Harper & Row, beginning on May 21st, 1968, about twenty-five days after he left the war and Vietnam. He subsequently worked at Avon Books, E.P. Dutton and the Dial Press as editor-in-chief before starting the Soho Press in 1986 with a friend. He stepped down as its Publisher and President 20 years later on the anniversary of its founding, a few months after the publication of his first book, The Trudeau Vector. Besides working on his next book, Red Flags, he wrote articles and interviewed authors for the San Diego Reader and taught publishing in the graduate program at Emerson College in Boston.
Phil Klay is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He grew up in White Plains, New York and now lives in Manhattan. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he is currently completing an MFA at Hunter College.
Roy Scranton served in the U.S. Army from 2002 to 2006, and deployed to Iraq with the 1st Armored Division from 2003 to 2004. He recently finished an M.A. in Liberal Studies at the New School for Social Research and is beginning doctoral study in English at Princeton University. His work has been published in New Letters, Theory & Event, LIT, and elsewhere. Scranton has been a featured blogger at the Opinionator blog of the New York Times.
Jacob Siegel is an Army veteran who served in Iraq. He is a Brooklyn Native and still resides in the borough. Mr. Siegel’s work has been published in New York Press, New Partisan and The Arch. Currently he is writing a book, which he describes as a pulp detective novel set inside an epic detective novel. He would rather not say anything more about it but if agents or wealthy patrons are interested the working title is Lucifer’s Nightgown.