Letter Composed During a Lull in the ..., Kevin Powers
Letter Composed During a Lull in the ..., Kevin Powers
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Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting
Poems

Author: Kevin Powers

Narrator: Kevin Powers

Unabridged: 1 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2014

Categories: Fiction, Poetry

Synopsis

The award-winning author of The Yellow Birds returns with an extraordinary debut poetry collection.

National Book Award finalist, Iraq war veteran, novelist and poet Kevin Powers creates a deeply affecting portrait of a life shaped by war. Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting captures the many moments that comprise a soldier's life: driving down the Texas highway; waiting for the unknown in the dry Iraq heat; writing a love letter; listening to a mother recount her dreams.

Written with evocative language and discernment, Powers's poetry strives to make sense of the war and its echoes through human experience. Just as The Yellow Birds was hailed as the "first literary masterpiece produced by the Iraq war," this collection will make its mark as a powerful, enduring work (Los Angeles Times).

About Kevin Powers

Kevin Powers' first novel, The Yellow Birds, won the Guardian First Book Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and was a National Book Award Finalist. His poetry collection, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. His second novel, A Shout in the Ruins, was published in 2018.Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University and holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Michener Fellow in Poetry. He served in the US Army in 2004 and 2005 in Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Douglas on October 11, 2021

War is terrible, not to be entered into lightly. When a soldier exchanges battle for pen, the poet has the most important job in the world. Poets have to make us consider the cost and awaken a desire to resist battle. “This is what war really is,” says the poet. “Do you really want to pay for this a......more

Goodreads review by Trish on May 30, 2014

What strikes a newcomer to Powers is his restraint. He is the matte black of soundless, reflection-less pitch in which a cry does not resonate. His screams are visual things, and we readers have had our eardrums burst. "The truth has no spare mercy, see." -–from "Death, Mother and Child" I read Power......more

Goodreads review by Courtney on January 10, 2016

I haven't read Yellow Birds so it's hard for me to understand the praise heaped upon Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting. Perhaps Kevin Powers' fiction is better than his poetry. I have to assume so as Yellow Birds was a National Book Award Finalist. But about this book of poetry. It does......more

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