Summer is here and the living is EZ

Summer in NYC. Lovely.

Recently attended the William Joiner Center's Writing Workshop, where I took a workshop with the Vietnam-War poet (and king among men)Bruce Weigl. Met some great Boston-area GWOT/Iraq/Afghanistan vets, and hung out with some of the crew from Warrior Writers, a non-profit devoted to "veterans transforming their lives through art."

While I feel like I have to be circumspect about Warrior Writers, because of their connections with the IVAW, a sadly confused and even pernicious organization, I support Warrior Writers in their mission to reach out to vets and help them write about their experiences. I hope they continue to reach out to all veterans, anti-war or not, liberal and conservative, and understand that there is more to dealing with the experience of war than merely to affirm or deny its morality.

I hope to post more on the issue of vets writing in the coming weeks, even though I'd like to get away from writing about Iraq and vets stuff, because I think it's important and there are some things to be said.

So this bloggedy blog will be shifting from talking about books I read to a more general and less regular forum for thoughts about different issues.

In the meantime, check out these books from vets, KABOOM: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War, by Matt Gallagher; Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq, by Michael Anthony; and Phantom Noise, a new book of poetry by Brian Turner. Also in non-vet news check out The November Criminals, by the always delightful Sam Munson.

Now it's time to go outside.