Doug Anderson (2)

Autor von The Moon Reflected Fire

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3+ Werke 49 Mitglieder 1 Rezension

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Doug Anderson, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, served in Vietnam as an infantry medic with the First Marine Division during the Tet Offensive. The Vietnam War became the subject of much of his poetry. After his military service, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater Production and mehr anzeigen an M. A. in Play Writing from the University of Arizona. He has taught writing and literature at Hampshire, Smith, Hofstra, Mount Wachusett, and in 1995 he received a joint appointment to Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University. In 1981 his play, Short Timers, was produced in New York. He has published a chapbook, Bamboo Bridge (1991), a book of poetry, The Moon Reflected Fire (1994), The Four Way Reader: Anthology (1996), as well as many critical reviews, and screenplays. His poetry has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares, Poet and Critic, the Southern Review, and Peregrine. The Moon Reflected Fire won the Kate Tufts Discover Award for Poetry. Other awards include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Emily Balch Prize for best poetry published in The Virginia Quarterly Review in 1993, and the Writers Exchange Award from Poets and Writers. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen

Werke von Doug Anderson

Beliebt Zuletzt

The Moon Reflected Fire (1994) 25 Exemplare

Keep Your Head Down: Vietnam, the Sixties, and a Journey of Self-Discovery (2009) 15 Exemplare

Blues for Unemployed Secret Police: Poems by Doug Anderson (2000) 9 Exemplare

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Zugehörige Werke

Orpheus and Company: Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology (1999) — Mitwirkender — 48 Exemplare

Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (2018) — Mitwirkender — 9 Exemplare

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Keep Your Head Down: Vietnam, the Sixties, and a… von Doug Anderson

Doug Anderson's 2009 memoir, KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN, is pretty well summed up by its subtitle, "VIETNAM, THE SIXTIES, AND A JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY, although the 'devil' is in the details and he gives us plenty. His father left when he was quite small, and his mother, who had several men in her life later, was often abusive to him, and, as soon as he finished high school, she left him too. Anderson sought refuge in books and music, and took up drums as a teenager, first in a rock band, then in jazz combos, playing in bars and strip joints around Tucson, losing his virginity early and drifting easily into drugs and alcohol, even while studying music at the University of Arizona, and joining the Navy Reserve as a hospital corpsman. By 1967 he was on the ground with the First Marine Division deep in Vietnam. At 24, older than most of the grunts he served with, it didn't take long for Anderson to become wise to the lies and propaganda that kept the war going, and he became deeply disillusioned, surrounded by senseless and daily death and disfigurement. He also witnessed the racism in the ranks, as well as that used to make the enemy seem subhuman and 'other.' But he managed to survive and carried all of this home with him, where he reenrolled at Arizona, in Drama this time, losing himself in drink, drugs and serial sexual liaisons. The sixties themselves play a major part in Anderson's story as he studies drama, literature and even philosophy, trying to make sense of his nightmarish war experience, and his confusing life in general, as he drifts around the country over the next few decades, writing and picking up teaching gigs. Finally he stops drinking, and, in 2000, books a trip back to Vietnam, where he meets veterans from that 'other side,' no longer enemies. He's a published poet by then, and meets others like himself, from both sides, and things begin to gradually get better for him.

I've probably not done a very good job of describing Doug Anderson's life story, so I'll just say it is one of the best memoirs by a Vietnam vet that I've ever read, and I have read dozens and dozens in the past forty-some years. Bravo, Doug. It took you nearly forty years to get it all down, but I'm glad you did. It matters. You matter. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA… (mehr)

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TimBazzett | Aug 16, 2023 |

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