Occupation: Writer Birth: July 11, 1980
The male role models I had all seemed to have been in the military. My father served in the army. My uncle was in the Marine Corps. Both of my grandf….
I'm always most interested in writing about things that I don't understand..
I think a diversity of expression can only be good, so I think the more that people write about their experience, use their imagination to deal with ….
All choices are illusions, or if they are not illusions their strength is illusory, for one choice must contend with the choices of all the other men….
Poetry and prose are of equal importance to me as a reader, and there doesn't seem to be much difference in my own writing..
My personal opinion is that if someone writes honestly about war, it will inherently be anti-war..
One of the things my service in Iraq did give me was this freedom from fear of failure or any kind of expectations that I had to take a standard path..
I know that the writers I read and admire all have an influence on my work, but trying to determine to what degree any particular piece of input chan….
The war came to me in my dreams and showed me its sole purpose: to go on, only to go on..
I understood that 'The Yellow Birds' would be a peculiar representation of the experience of being at war. I intended it to be so..
The war tried to kill us in the spring. As grass greened the plains of Nineveh and the weather warmed, we patrolled the low-slung hills beyond the ci….
The world makes liars of us all..
I had the feeling that if I encountered anyone they would intuit my disgrace and would judge me instantly. Nothing is more isolating than having a pa….
I understand that it's incredibly difficult to watch what's happening on the news every day and not become inured to it. I've fallen victim to that m….
There are definitely connections between poems, but I wanted each to stand on its own. I guess it goes back to the idea of trying to zoom in and out,….
There's something immediate about the experience of reading a poem - whether it's the music or some other element of it - that just seems to access a….
I knew that at least a few of the stars I saw were probably gone already, collapsed into nothing. I felt like I was looking at a lie. But I didn't mi….