Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War

From the Publisher

The Fighting Leprechaun, 1/10/13“Powerful… These short stories manage to capture the essence of what service members have experienced… There are a lot of essential truths packed into Fire and Forget. For those of us that have been there, or know people who served in these wars, it is important reading."

Acolytes of War, 1/21/13 “Whether portraying the fantastical or the banal, the in-theater tales feature grunts’ eye perspectives on deployment, far from the sterile perspectives recounted in more official histories, memoirs, journalism, and government pronouncements…Hat’s off to all the Fire and Forget authors and editors.”

ForeWord, Spring 2013“Deeply insightful…The writing is vivid and compelling, artfully selected by the editors…An important book…This collection deserves to be read.”
Internet Review of Books, 1/25/13“As might be expected, these stories are intense; it's hard to read many of them in a single session. Yet contrary to expectations there's not much sameness in the telling. Each man or woman has his/her own story, each one unique. These are voices we all need to hear.”
East Bay Express, 2/5/13“[A] remarkable collection…Not for the faint of heart, they are realistic, haunting, shocking, and unforgettable…This collection offers voices—powerful voices, telling the kind of truth that only fiction can offer.”

Joyce Carol Oates, Twitter.com, 2/9/13“Brilliant intro by Colum McCann. Devastating stories.”
Daily Beast, 2/11/13“A visceral, all-too-real collection of short stories by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…This is fiction as good as any you’ll read anywhere...These pages contain a record of the cost of our excursions abroad that is as illustrative as any culture can produce.”

Barnes and Noble Review, 2/15/13“These rousing ‘Short Stories of the Long War’ are uniquely resonant.”
War on Terror News, 2/13/13“Probably the best single representation of Iraq and Afghanistan-fiction that’s currently available. Novels like Fobbit and The Yellow Birds have done their part well—but one author’s voice can only go so far.”
Military Success Network, 2/12/13“Its pages feature unique but iconic stories of war, homecoming, and the struggle for meaning in both...This collection paints a startling and bleak picture of Long War veterans and their lives during and after combat…That said, the voices of Fire and Forget ring true in their cynicism, pain, and humor. This is an important collection of fiction, not only because of its current-day relevancy, but also because of the strength of its diverse voices, all engaged in a search for truth among the desert sands of fiction and memory. It should not be missed by anyone with an interest in modern war or the veteran experience.”

Literary Aficionado, 2/22/13“Penetrating stories from the hands of the damaged who have scribed the tensions, and anguish, the scars, the decimation of personal lives of those who returned home either physically maimed or mentally brutalized or both…These stories are so well edited that there is a variety of types of tales—some humorous, some that show that intense camaraderie that often peaks in a war zone, some about those left behind when the soldiers were fragged to distant lands…Some tattoo on the mind.”

New City, 2/26“Nothing brings the reality of war home like hearing it from the hearts and minds of those who experienced it…Fire and Forget arrives at just the right time, when the last vestiges of conflict fall away…Roy Scranton and Matt Gallagher have not only compiled an excellent diversity of experiences and vantage points into the war, but also a list of accomplished and gifted writers…The stories are by turns gritty and hilarious, poignant and rhapsodic, but there’s one thing they all share: they are all imbued with the deep love of their authors. Faced with something as unspeakably harrowing as war, the voices here have salvaged what small beauty they could from the turmoil…At no point is this an easy collection, but it is a necessary one.”
Roanoke Times, 3/1“Gritty with realism…The tales are exceedingly well told. Fiction it may be, but none can deny the ring of truth.”
Bookviews, 2/22“Anyone who served and anyone who wants to know what it was to serve will value this book.”

Library Journal, 3/15/13“With wars come war stories and from those stories evolves literature. Leading this generation of war literature is this collection of short stories written by soldiers and a military spouse whose lives were directly affected by the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan…The encompassing and humanistic tone is the heart of this work…The honesty and authenticity of the stories are universal…Like Walter Dean Myers’s Sunrise Over Fallujah, these tales will appeal to readers of war and historical fiction.”
New York Daily News, 3/5/13“Some of America’s greatest works of literature have come from its wars. Be it Stephen Crane, E.L. Doctorow, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, James Jones or Tim O’Brien, war has been memorialized, glorified, satirized and revealed in all its valor and depredation…Now, as another war comes to a close, a new generation of authors will come forward to define themselves through their own fictional narratives. Among the finest have been enlisted in Fire and Forget…Fire and Forget will not soon be forgotten.”
Street Roots, 2/28/13“Representing a new generation of veterans-turned-authors, the contributors in Fire and Forget have returned home, at least physically, and are now sharing their works and sculpting the public’s perception of these wars and how they’ve impacted the warriors…Fire and Forget is an effective cultural text on multiple levels. Not only does it serve as a historical milepost, reminding us that we are waging the longest war in our nation’s history, but it also serves as a point of conversation. Readers will gain insight into the emotional struggles faced by many of our veterans during their transition back home, and the veterans themselves will undoubtedly find a connection to one or more of the protagonists or their conflicts.”
InfoDad.com, 3/7/13 “Both the editors are themselves good writers…And they have uncovered some powerful voices among their contributors…It is a book filled with finely constructed, generally depressing stories by people who have seen much and done much in the name of their country, and who use fiction—generally, reality thinly disguised as fiction—to process what happened to them and try to open it up to themselves and to the folks back home.”

Pencils.com's Studio 602, 3/13:“Fire and Forget has launched a preemptive strike on the literary world, collecting the short stories of the principal authors of the Global War on Terror. As the anniversary of the initial invasion of Iraq approaches, this masterful collection of new fiction is not only timely, but necessary. In the stories contained within, you will find equal measures of levity and danger, punctuated by memories as vivid as they are haunting. This is a book which has chosen not to look away from the trauma of war, but instead, to confront it head on. Aside from the emphasis on the war itself, you will find yourself captivated by the well-crafted storytelling and inspired by the humanity that was salvaged in the aftermath of these wars. The impact of this book will resound with the force of a 2,000 pound bomb, a testament to life in the midst of the after-war.”

Willamette Week, 3/20/13 “A grim expedition to the front lines and back home, giving a personal face to the desert wars that linger in soldiers’ lives long after they’ve left the sand…As masculine as a Hemingway novel…Fire and Forget gives human features to distant wars…Fire and Forget, like almost any war, is an uncomfortable look into the dark corners of humanity.”

Cape Ann Beacon, 3/27/13“What comes to mind reading a collection like this is the sense of wonder at the great pool of talent that lives, unheard. In this case, thanks to the efforts of many, 14 veterans and the spouse of a veteran are provided with an opportunity to tell their unusual stories using their fresh and creative voices. This book is a wonderful surprise and a wrenching education at the same time.”
Chestertown Spy, 3/29/13“An absolutely terrific collection of stories by fifteen exciting new writers…I can’t even begin to do justice to the excellence and variety of the veterans’ experiences brought together between the covers of Fire and Forget. So I’ll just say this. There is not a clinker in the bunch. Every story deserves its place in this landmark collection.”
The Center for Deployment Psychology, 3/27/13“Although many of its themes—moral injury, brotherhood, loss, and alienation—echo earlier war literature, this collection also highlights the new reality of IED blasts and suicide bombings…This book is an invaluable asset to the literature about the current conflicts and is recommended to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of their effects on those who served.”
DianeProkop.com, 3/25/13“Gripping fictional glimpses into the moments that make up an ordinary day of a soldier deployed or one who is grappling with a return home.”
“Politics and Patriotism Show,” Stitcher Smart Radio Network, 3/26/13“There is no preaching in these pages, but there is truth that speaks through example and metaphor to simply say that there’s a price to pay for the things we do…Fire and Forget is more than a slice of truth that our leaders in the present day should be made aware of.  It’s a gift to the future.  Someday, when future historians look back, hoping to find something that explained what soldiers were thinking as they came home from their Iraq and Afghanistan deployments, they will find this book.”

Lost in Books blog, 4/7/13“A collection of poignancy, fear, despair, courage, bitterness, confusion, self-awareness, loss of self-awareness, triumph, disappointment, and, most of all, heart…A profound and haunting group of stories.”

Library Journal