F110. The Middle Americans: How Flyover Country Responds to War

Marquis Salon 6, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
Friday, February 10, 2017
9:00 am to 10:15 am

 

By various measures, rural Americans are more likely to enlist in the US armed forces. Despite isolation from traditional centers of publishing and military power, voices with Midwestern roots have sprung forth like dragon's teeth to deliver clear-eyed, plainspoken views of war, service, and sacrifice. The civilians and veterans of this stereotype-busting panel of published writers offer their insights regarding themes, trends, and markets in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.


Participants

Moderator:

Randy Brown embedded with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit as a civilian journalist in Afghanistan, May/June 2011. He authored the poetry collection Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire, and is the poetry editor of Military Experience & the Arts' As You Were journal.

M.L. Doyle has served in the US Army at home and abroad for more than three decades as both a soldier and civilian and calls on those experiences in much of her writing. Her award-winning military-based mystery series as well as her coauthored memoirs are all about celebrating women who wear combat boots.

Kayla Williams is a former sergeant and Arabic linguist in a military intelligence company of the 101st Airborne Division. She is the author of the books Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the US Army and Plenty of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War.

Matthew J. Hefti is the author of A Hard and Heavy Thing. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan four times as a bomb tech. His work has been seen in See Me for Who I Am, MFA vs. NYC, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Lit Hub, and others. He now attends law school, where he works for the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

Angela Ricketts is an army brat turned twenty-five-year wife of a career army officer. She is the author of the memoir No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife, which gives an inside glimpse into the insular infantry subculture during wartime. Angie has a master's degree in social psychology.

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February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center