Combat was a good career move for award-winning war poet Brian Turner, though it took a toll. The native of California's San Joaquin Valley now has a deep, dark pool of memories to draw from. He dips down, if he dares, and there they are.
He's been learning "how to write about the ghosts that live among us, whether we recognize them or not," Turner said.
Now, the former Army sergeant has a second volume of poems out influenced largely by his service in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The collection called "Phantom Noise" follows up on "Here, Bullet," a real life-changer.
Considered the first collection of poems by an Iraq war veteran, "Here, Bullet" helped Turner win the 2009-10 Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Fellowship, a Boston-based award that's given annually to a U.S.-born poet to spend one year outside North America.
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