Fire and Forget (31 page)

Mariette Kalinowski
served in the United States Marine Corps, deploying to Iraq twice, in 2005 and 2008, and discharging as a sergeant. Her experience as a heavy machine gunner on convoys led her to focus on women's perspectives of combat and war, since women's involvement in the wars is too often dismissed. She is an advocate for women veterans and participated in the documentary
Service: The Film
. She currently studies in the Hunter College Master of Fine Arts program and is working on her first novel.

Phil Klay
is a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a graduate of the MFA program at Hunter College. He has been published by the
New York Times
, the
New York Daily News
, and
Granta
, and is completing a short story collection to be published by Penguin Press.

Gavin Ford Kovite
was an infantry platoon leader in Baghdad from 2004 to 2005. After his deployment, he attended NYU School of Law and has since returned to active duty as an Army lawyer. His work has been published in
Flatman Crooked
and in
Nine Lines
, the journal of the NYU Veterans Writing Workshop.

Perry O'Brien
is an Army veteran of Afghanistan and a conscientious objector. He is currently a labor organizer and an MFA student at New York University. His work has appeared in
New Letters
and
New Labor Forum
, and he is the co-author of
After Gandhi: 100 Years of Nonviolent Resistance
.

Roy Scranton
's poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in
Boston Review, The Massachusetts Review, Denver Quarterly, LIT, New Letters
, the
New York Times
, and elsewhere. He earned an MA from the New School for Social Research and is currently a PhD candidate in English at Princeton University. He was an artilleryman in the US Army from 2002 to 2006, and served in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 (1st AD). “Red Steel India” is from his novel
War Porn
.

Jacob Siegel
is an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is from Brooklyn. Mr. Siegel's work has been published in
New York Press, New Partisan
, and
The Arch
. Currently he is writing a book that 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
.

Roman Skaskiw
's work has appeared in the
New York Times, The Atlantic, Stanford Magazine, Front Porch Journal
, on
GoNomad.com
, the Mises Institute website, and elsewhere. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His six years in the US Army included completion of Ranger School and Jumpmaster School, two combat tours with the 82nd Airborne Division, and one with the Kunar Province Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Andrew Slater
served in the US Army as an infantry and Special Forces officer from 2000 to 2010. He deployed to Afghanistan (2002–2003) and Iraq (2004) as an infantry platoon leader with
the 82nd Airborne Division, followed by two deployments to Iraq (2006–2007) and one to Afghanistan (2009) with 5th Special Forces Group. He received a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Columbia University and currently teaches high-school English in Erbil, Iraq.

Brian Turner
(author of
Here, Bullet
and
Phantom Noise
) served as an infantry sergeant in Iraq (2nd Infantry Division) and in Bosnia (3rd Mountain Division). He received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, an NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets' Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. His work has appeared on National Public Radio, the BBC,
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
, and
Weekend America
, among others.

Brian Van Reet
was born in Houston, Texas. In November 2001, he dropped out of the University of Virginia and enlisted in the Army. He served as a tank gunner with the 1st Cavalry Division and was awarded a Bronze Star with “V” Device for combat actions in Baghdad. His fiction has received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology, won the Gulf Coast Prize, and has appeared in journals including
The Southern Review, Shenandoah, Brooklyn Review
, and
Evergreen Review
. He lives in Austin where he holds a James A. Michener Fellowship.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint copyrighted material:

 

“Roll Call” by David Abrams © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Play the Game” by Colby Buzzell © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Tips for a Smooth Transition” by Siobhan Fallon © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Bugs Don't Bleed” by Matt Gallagher © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Raid” by Ted Janis © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Train” by Mariette Kalinowski © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Redeployment” by Phil Klay © 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“When Engaging Targets, Remember” by Gavin Kovite © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Poughkeepsie” by Perry O'Brien © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Red Steel India” by Roy Scranton © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Smile, There Are IEDs Everywhere” by Jacob Siegel © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Television” by Roman Skaskiw © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“New Me” by Andrew Slater © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Wave That Takes Us Over” by Brian Turner © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Big Two-Hearted Hunting Creek” by Brian Van Reet © 2009. Reprinted by permission of the author.