Here, Bullet - Softcover

Turner, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1882295552 ISBN 13: 9781882295555

Publisher: Alice James Books, 2005

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

The poems in HERE, BULLET are steeped in pity for the occupants of Iraq, while at the same time remaining on full alert to the likely moment "when a twelve-year-old / rolls a grenade into the room"...The most effective instrument in Turner's kit is his detachment... the particulars are so shocking that they need no sentimental boost... which is deployed in combination with complex feeling... There are poems in HERE, BULLET good enough to hold a place in any anthology of war poetry.' (In the line of fire: James Campbell asks where are the war poets of today) --James Campbell, The Guardian

Turner attempts to capture the extreme experience of war by depicting the feelings it generates: the sense of loss, hatred, humiliation, love, uncertainty, and dreamy longing for a normal life. --Library Journal

Several hundred books have now been published on the Iraq War...but none has felt necessary until now. There's something in the lumbering of prose that cannot capture what poetry, done right, can make immanent with its insistent beat...With Brian Turner's Here, Bullet, we have the first war poetry since Yusef Komunyakaa's DIEN CAI DAU that matters. --Rain Taxi

About the Author:

Brian Turner earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and lived abroad in South Korea for a year before serving for seven years in the US Army. He was an infantry team leader for a year in Iraq beginning in November 2003 with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999 with the 10th Mountain Division. His poetry has been published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review and other journals, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Alice James Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1882295552
• ISBN 13: 9781882295555
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80