Studs Terkel and Benjamin Percy on Writing About War
In 1997, Studs Terkel blamed journalists and writers for sugar-coating the first Gulf War: “Our most prestigious journals found the horrors visited by our smart bombs upon Iraqi women and kids news not fit to print. It is no secret that our media — TV and radio, owned by the same Big Boys, compounding the obscenity — played the role of bat boys to the sluggers of the Pentagon.”
Sadly, we lost Terkel over the weekend, but a number of writers will follow in his footsteps–including Benjamin Percy, the Whiting-award-winning author of the short story collection, Refresh, Refresh. In this video interview, Percy talks about upcoming projects and how the Iraq War has influenced his writing. “It bothers me that you can look at the headlines and see news about Britney Spears instead of news about the seven soldiers who died from an IED,” he explained.
In these final days leading up to tomorrow’s election, GalleyCat asked a number of writers to comment on what this historic event means to them. So far, author Barry Lopez talked about Sarah Palin, author Manuel Munoz reflected on university funding, and poet Douglas Kearney pondered political language in the age of Joe the Plumber, and playwright Dael Orlandersmith spoke about writing truthfully.
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