Poetry of War

The "Mother of All 21st Century War Poetry Lists" first appeared in an April 2015 blog post. It is updated and expanded here. In most cases, the list is alphabetized by writer's last name. While "war" is a wider topic, most of these titles relate in some way to conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you have suggestions for additions to this list, please comment below, or e-mail: sherpa AT redbullrising DOT com

Updated Nov. 30, 2021

COLLECTIONS:

• "Dispatches from the FOB" (2019), "Flying Over Baghdad with Sylvia Plath" (2016), and "FM 101-5-1 MCRP 5-2A: Operational Terms and Graphics" (2017) by Paul David Adkins. Red Bull Rising reviews here and here.

• "Bombs Have Not Breakfasted Yet" (2013) by Adnan Al-Sayegh. Translated by Abbas Kadhim and David Allen Sullivan. (Free PDF available via the Iraqi Cultural Council, London)

• "The Ghosts of Babylon" by Jonathan Baxter (2016). Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Terminal Leave" (2018) by F.S. Blake

• "All the Heat We Could Carry" (2013) by Charlie Bondhus. Narratives of gay soldiers and their partners.

• "In Cadence" (2016) by Lance B. Brender and C. Rodney Pattan

• "Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire" (2015) and "So Frag & So Bold" (2021) by Randy Brown, a.k.a "Charlie Sherpa."

• "Fact & Memory" (2019) by Tyler James Carroll and Keith Dow. Poems from a deployed combat medic, and military police soldier.

• "Hugging This Rock: Poems of Earth & Sky, Love & War" (2017) by Eric Chandler

• "Rubicon" (2013) by Stanton S. Coerr

• "Call in the Air" (2014) by David R. Dixon

• "Stateside" (2010) and "Dots & Dashes" (2017) by Jehanne Dubrow. Poems from the home front.

• "Bangalore" (2013) by Kerry James Evans. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Clamor " (2010) and "Sweet Insurgent" (2017) by Elyse Fenton. Poems from the home front.

• "Medic Against Bomb: A Doctor's Poetry of War" (2014) by Frederick Foote

• "Drone" (2016) by Kim Garcia. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Forever War" (2020) by Kate Gaskin. Interview here.

• "Warcries" (2016) by Nicole Goodwin. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Overwatch" (2011) and "Contested Terrain" (2017) by Dwight Allen Gray

• "Blood Stripes" (2019) by Aaron Graham

• "Shortly Thereafter" (2012) by Colin Halloran. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Mothers Over Nangarhar" (2019) by Pamela Hart

• "Slow War" (2017) by Benjamin Hertwig. Poems from a Canadian former service member.

• "Unguarded" (2018) by Lynn Marie Houston. Poem-letters to a deploying lover.

• "Cenotaph" (2016) by Brock Jones

• "When the Men Go Off to War" (2015) by Victoria Kelly. Poems from the home front.

• "The Explosive Expert's Wife" (2018) by Sara Lessley

• "Aftermath" (2015) by J.E. McCollough and Andrew McCollough

• "Reaper" (2017) by Jill McDonough

• "Letters to War and Lethe" (2014) by Farzana Marie

• "So, How Was the War?" (2010),  "The Stick Soldiers" (2013),  and "In Country" (2019) by Hugh Martin

• "The Shape of Our Faces No Longer Matters" (2014) by Gerardo Mena. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Sand Opera" (2015) by Philip Metres. Narratives of Abu Grahib.

• "The War Works Hard" (2005) and "The Iraqi Nights" (2014) by Dunya Mikhail. Iraqi-American poet, born in Baghdad.

• "Hail and Farewell" (September 2019), "How to Be Married After Iraq" (2018), and "Quick Draw: Poems from a Soldier's Wife" (2013) by Abby E. Murray. Poems from the home front.

• "Captive" (2012), "Underdays" (2015), and "Lessons in Camouflage" (2018) by Martin Ott. Poems from a former U.S. Army interrogator.

• "Red Fields" (2012) by Jason Poudrier. Red Bull Rising interview with the author here.

• "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting: Poems" (2014) by Kevin Powers. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Murmurs at the gate" (2019) by Suzanne S. Rancourt. U.S. Marine and Army veteran. Review here.

• "The Warrior: A Mother's Story of a Son at War" (2009) and "Voices of the Guard" (2010) by Frances Richey

• "From Sand and Time" (2017) by David Rose

• "The Gun and the Scythe: Poetry by an Army Ranger" (2019) and "A Moment of Violence" (2020) by Luke Ryan

• "War" (2013) by Chuck Rybak

• "Frost in the Low Areas" (2016) and "Battle Dress" (August 2019) by Karen Skolfield. U.S. Army veteran. Review of "Battle Dress" here.

• "Army Cats" (2011) and "Station Zed" (2015) by Tom Sleigh

• "Uniform" (2016), "Permanent Change of Station" (2018), and "FORCES" by Lisa Stice. Poems from the home front. Red Bull Rising review of "Uniform" here.

• "Kill Class" (2019) by Nomi Stone

• "Every Seed of the Pomegranate" (2012) by David Allen Sullivan. Poems written from perspectives of multiple denizens of the Iraq War. 

• "Mormon Boy" (2012) and "We Deserve the Gods We Ask For" (2014) by Seth Brady Tucker

• "Here, Bullet" (2005) and "Phantom Noise"(2010) by Brian Turner. Red Bull Rising review of the poet's recent memoir here.

• "Say Again All" (2011) by Paul Wasserman. Poems written by Iraq War veteran and U.S. Army aircrew member.

ANTHOLOGIES:

• "Enduring Freedom: An Afghan Anthology" (2011; pending re-release August 2015). Poems from U.K. military service members, veterans, and family members.

• "Load Poems Like Guns: Women's Poetry from Herat, Afghanistan" (2015) translated by Farzana Marie

• "Heroes: 100 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets" (2011). Poems from U.K. military service members, veterans, and family members.

• "In Love ... & War" (2018)

• "Washing the Dust from Our Hearts: Poetry and Prose from the Afghan Women's Writing Project" (2015). Works in English from participants in the program's videoconference workshops.

FREE! ON-LINE MIL-POETRY JOURNALS:

• "Collateral" magazine. Stories from perspectives of those affected by others' military service

• "Line of Advance" journal

• Military Experience & the Arts' "Blue Streak" and "As You Were"

• Veterans Writing Project's "O-Dark-Thirty"

• "War, Literature and the Arts" journal

• "Wife and War" poetry blog by memoirist Amalie Flynn

WAR POETRY COLLECTIONS WRITTEN BY WOMEN:

• "Stateside" (2010) and "Dots & Dashes" (2017) by Jehanne Dubrow. Poems from the home front.

• "Clamor " (2010) by Elyse Fenton. Poems from the home front.

• "Drone" (2016) by Kim Garcia. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Forever War" (2020) by Kate Gaskin. Interview here.

• "Warcries" (2016) by Nicole Goodwin. U.S. Army veteran. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Mothers Over Nangarhar" (2019) by Pamela Hart

• "Unguarded" (2018) by Lynn Marie Houston. Poem-letters to a deploying lover. 

• "When the Men Go Off to War" (2015) by Victoria Kelly. Poems from the home front.

• "The Explosive Expert's Wife" (2018) by Sara Lessley

• "Letters to War and Lethe" (2014) by Farzana Marie. U.S. Air Force veteran.

• "The War Works Hard" (2005) and "The Iraqi Nights" (2014) by Dunya Mikhail. Iraqi-American poet, born in Baghdad.

• "Reaper" (2017) by Jill McDonough

• "How to Be Married After Iraq" (2018) and "Quick Draw: Poems from a Soldier's Wife" (2013) by Abby E. Murray. Poems from the home front.

• "Murmurs at the gate" (2019) by Suzanne S. Rancourt. U.S. Marine and Army veteran. Review here.

• "The Warrior: A Mother's Story of a Son at War" (2009) and "Voices of the Guard" (2010) by Frances Richey

• "Frost in the Low Areas" (2016) and "Battle Dress" (August 2019) by Karen Skolfield. U.S. Army veteran. Review of "Battle Dress" here.

• "Uniform" (2016), "Permanent Change of Station" (2018), and "FORCES" by Lisa Stice. Poems from the home front. Red Bull Rising review of "Uniform" here.

• "Kill Class" (2019) by Nomi Stone

ANTHOLOGIES FEATURING WAR POETRY BY WOMEN:

• Consequence Magazine's 10th Anniversary edition (2018) focuses on women's writing.

• "Enduring Freedom: An Afghan Anthology" (2011; pending re-release August 2015). Poems from U.K. military service members, veterans, and family members.

• "Load Poems Like Guns: Women's Poetry from Herat, Afghanistan" (2015) translated by Farzana Marie

• "Heroes: 100 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets" (2011). Poems from U.K. military service members, veterans, and family members.

• "Homefront" (2016) by Bryony Doran, Jehanne Dubrow, Elysse Fenton, Isabel Palmer. A four-poet collection comprising the works of two mothers of British soldiers serving in Afghanistan (Doran and Palmer); a U.S. Navy spouse (Dubrow's "Stateside"); and a U.S. Army spouse (Fenton's "Clamor").

• Veterans Writing Project's "O-Dark-Thirty" journal Winter 2016, Vol. 4, No. 2 focuses on women's writing. Available FREE as PDF at link here.

• "Washing the Dust from Our Hearts: Poetry and Prose from the Afghan Women's Writing Project" (2015). Works in English from participants in the program's videoconference workshops.