30 questions; let’s see who knows their stuff. Answers below.
27-30 Correct: Expert
23-26: Sharpshooter
19-22: Marksman
Less than 19: Bolo
Ready, go!
1. “The war tried to kill us in the spring.” This is the opening line to what 2012 novel by an Army veteran about two buddies deployed to Iraq?
2. “We shot dogs.” This is the opening line to what 2014 short-story by a former Marine?
3. The author of the 2011 short-story collection You Know When the Men Are Gone is ______.
4. In 2012, this novel about an Army Iraq veterans attending a Dallas Cowboys football game was a finalist for the National Book Award.
5. Match the author with the title of his or her story in the 2013 short-story anthology Fire and Forget:
Jacob Siegal “The Train
Brian Van Reet “Big Two-Hearted Hunting Creek”
Mariette Kalinowski “Smile, There are IEDs Everywhere”
6. What are the names of the Iraq Army veteran and Afghanistan Navy veteran who started the NYC non-profit war-writing organization Words After War?
7. This 2012 novel set in Afghanistan drew inspiration from the Greek classic “Antigone.”
8. Match the title and author name of these GWOT war novels written by civilian women:
Roxana Robinson We All Come Home
Helen Benedict Carthage
Joyce Carol Oates Sand Queen
Katey Schultz Be Safe I Love You
Cara Hoffman Sparta
9. Name the titles of the two graphic novels written by Maximillian Uriarte, one set in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan.
10. This novel by Marine veteran Elliot Ackerman takes its title from a phrase used to describe American casualties suffered at the hand of their Afghanistan allied partners.
11. Match the author and title of these novels written in the early years of the GWOT veteran-writing boom:
Benjamin Buchholz The Sandbox
David Zimmerman Last One In
Nicholas Kulish One Hundred and One Nights
12. Match the names and titles of these novels and short-story collections written by male civilian authors:
Luke Mogelson A Big Enough Lie
Eric Bennett These Heroic, Happy Dead
Jonathan Chopra The Good Lieutenant
Aaron Gwyn Veteran Crisis Hotline
Whitney Terrell Wynne’s War
13. The name of Marine veteran Atticus Lish’s novel about a former Marine adrift in New York City is ____.
14. Match the names of the Iraqi authors with their works:
Sinan Antoon The Corpse Exhibition
Hassan Blasim Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi The Corpse Washer
15. Match the name of the war-writing collective/seminar/journal and its founder:
The Wrath-Bearing Tree Lovella Calica
Veterans Writing Project Adrian Bonenberger
Voices from War Travis Martin
Military Experience and the Arts Kara Krauze
Warrior Writers Ron Capps
16. Which military academy sponsored the War, Literature, and the Arts conferences in 2011 and 2018?
17. In what branch did vet-writers Brian Castner, Jesse Goolsby, Eric Chandler, and J.A. Moad serve?
18. In what year did Phil Klay’s short-story collection Redeployment win the National Book Award?
19. This Navy veteran’s short story “Kattekoppen” first appeared in The New Yorker in 2013 and then in the author’s short-story collection Bring Out the Dog in 2018.
20. The proprietors of MilSpeak Foundation and Middle West Press are ______ and ______, respectively.
21. The title of this poem by Brian Turner was later used as the title for an Academy Award-winning movie. What is the title?
22. What are the names of the memoirs written by the following veterans:
Brian Turner ____
Benjamin Busch ____
Ron Capps ____
Kayla Williams ____
23. Match the author with a volume of poetry they have written:
Colin Halloran Sand Opera
Hugh Martin Lines Composed During a Lull in the Fighting
Kevin Powers The Stick Soldiers
Phillip Metres Shortly Thereafter
24. Match the author with a volume of poetry they have written:
Lisa Stice The Iraqi Nights
Jehanne Dubrow Clamor
Elyse Fenton. Stateside
Dunya Mikhail Forces
25. The Army veteran author of the novels Fobbit and Brave Deeds is _______.
26. The two novels set in Afghanistan written by Pakistani-British author Nadeem Aslam are ______ and _____.
27. “The Trauma Hero” is a concept associated with which Army veteran writer? ______
28. What are the names of the war-writers portrayed in this photo accompanying a 2014 Vanity Fair article titled “The Words of War”?
(Vanity Fair photograph by Jonas Karlsson)
29. What are the names of the authors featured in this 2015 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) panel?
30. What are the names of these war-writing luminaries, taken at a reading at The Strand Bookstore in NYC in 2014?:
BONUS (2 points): Benjamin Busch wrote the introductions to one of the following anthologies and Ron Capps wrote the other. Match the author with the anthology:
Retire the Colors
Incoming
Answers:
1: Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds
2: Phil Klay, “Redeployment”
3: Siobhan Fallon
4: Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
5: Jacob Siegal: “Smile, IEDs Are Everwhere.” Brian Van Reet: “Big Two-Hearted Hunting Creek.” Mariette Kalinowski: “The Train”
6: Matt Gallagher and Brandon Willetts, respectively
7: Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya’s The Watch
8: Roxana Robinson: Sparta. Helen Benedict: Sand Queen. Joyce Carol Oates: Carthage. Katey Schultz: We All Come Home. Cara Hoffman: Be Safe I Love You
9: The White Donkey (Iraq), Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli (Afghanistan)
10: Green on Blue
11: Benjamin Buchholz, One Hundred and One Nights; David Zimmerman, The Sandbox; Nicholas Kulish, One Hundred and One Nights
12: Luke Mogelson, These Heroic, Happy Dead; Eric Bennett, A Big Enough Lie. Jonathan Chopra, Veteran Crisis Hotline; Aaron Gwyn, Wynne’s War; Whitney Terrell, The Good Lieutenant
13: Preparation for the Next Life
14: Sinan Antoon, The Corpse Washer; Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition; Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad
15: The Wrath-Bearing Tree: Adrian Bonenberger; Veterans Writing Project: Ron Capps; Voices from War: Kara Krauze; Military Experience and the Arts; Travis Martin; Warrior Writers: Lovella Calica
16: The United States Air Force Academy
17: United States Air Force
18: 2014
19: Will Mackin
20: Tracy Crow and Randy Brown (Charlie Sherpa)
21: Brian Turner’s The Hurt Locker
22: Brian Turner, My Life as a Foreign Country; Benjamin Busch, Dust to Dust; Ron Capps, Seriously Not All Right; Kayla Williams, Loved My Weapon More Than You (or, Plenty of Time When We Get Home)
23: Colin Halloran, Shortly Thereafter; Hugh Martin, The Stick Soldiers; Kevin Powers, Lines Composed During a Lull in the Fighting; Philip Metres, Sand Opera
24: Lisa Stice, Forces; Jehanne Dubrow, Stateside; Elyse Fenton, Clamor; Dunya Mikhail, The Iraqi Nights
25: David Abrams
26: The Wasted Vigil and The Blind Man’s Garden
27: Roy Scranton
28: Left to right: Maurice Decaul, Phil Klay, Elliot Ackerman, Kevin Powers, Brandon Willetts, Matt Gallagher
29: Left to right: Brian Turner, Katey Shultz, Siobhan Fallon, Benjamin Busch, Phil Klay
30: Left to right: Adrian Bonenberger, Roxana Robinson, David Abrams, Matt Gallagher
BONUS: Retire the Colors: Ron Capps; Standing Down: Benjamin Busch
