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"…thoughtful recollections, scary memories, articulate reflections, and the resolve of a man who has been there."—Publishers Weekly
At age nineteen, Hugh Martin withdrew from college when his National Guard unit was activated for a deployment to Iraq. After training at Fort Bragg, Martin spent 2004 in Iraq as the driver of his platoon sergeant's Humvee. He participated in hundreds of missions including raids, conducting foot patrols, clearing routes for IEDs, disposing of unexploded ordnance, and searching thousands of Iraqi vehicles. These poems recount his time in basic training, his preparation for Iraq, his experience withdrawing from school, and ultimately, the final journey to Iraq and back home to Ohio.
Hugh Martin holds an MFA from Arizona State University. He is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
Price: $17.00
Pages: 88
Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
Imprint: BOA Editions Ltd.
Publication Date:
02 April 2013
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781938160066
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
"The Stick Soldiers reveal[s] Iraq in all its real and imagined dangers in a language that is somber, angry, deeply reflective, but also intensely, if not darkly humorous.” The collection is an “approachable, necessary volume of poems about what it was like to prepare for war, serve in Iraq, and return to Ohio ‘a body / much less / without the plated-vest, the ammo.’” -M.K. Sukach, War Literature & the Arts
“The Stick Soldiers is a journey you don’t want to miss. Especially if you care about the soldiers our country sent to war and if you want to help them come home.” -Bookscover2cover
“The Stick Soldiers deserves a wide audience. It has much to tell us about the cost of war on our veterans.” - Rain Taxi
“As America’s withdrawal from Iraq fades amidst more recent events, it becomes even more important to read books like The Stick Soldiers to give voice and image to just what contemporary war constitutes for soldiers like Martin.” --Mark Allen Jenkins, American Microreviews and Interviews
"Martin’s book, The Stick Soldiers, released in 2013, is filled with this kind of comédie noire, a knowing authority which seems deeply suspicious not only of its own attempts to reduce the war to language but also of the capacity of its civilian audience to comprehend this language."-Los Angeles Review of Books
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.
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.
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
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