Disarming Armistice Day / Truthout

My op-ed on Armistice Day in Truthout … 

"These days might better serve us, and those whom we mean to honor, by meditating on needless sacrifice, needless wars, opportunities lost, the reality of war’s awfulness, as those at the first Remembrance Day did."

Visit Fomite Press for more on my new book, Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home.

'Losing Francis brings memory to lyrical life' - a new review

Chicago writer Lew Rosenbaum has posted a new review of Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home at the Chicago Labor and Arts Festival Blog, which he also edits.

Read his review here: "Thank You for Your Service"

"The Art of Grief: 'Windows and Mirrors'" at the Ulrich Museum of Art

I'm honored to be invited to speak at the Ulrich Museum of Art, at Wichita State University, on October 17th, about my exploration of the American Friends Service Committee exhibit, "Windows and Mirrors: Reflections of the War in Afghanistan," which toured North America in 2011-12.

For the benefit of attendees and anyone who may be interested, I'm posting here several links related to the exhibit and my presentation:

Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home -- which includes "The Art of Grief: 'Windows and Mirrors'" (revised)

"The Art of Grief: 'Windows and Mirrors'" -- my essay as it first appeared in The Common On-Line

Catalogue for "Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan"

Flickr gallery of "Windows and Mirrors" paintings

Fifteen Years in Iraq: No Place Safe There, or Here

The anniversary of the Iraq invasion mostly slips under the radar every year. Truthout.org posted my contribution to commemorating fifteen years of war in Iraq--and we're still there.

Fifteen Years in Iraq: There Was No Place Safe There, or Here

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/43885-fifteen-years-in-iraq-there-was-no-place-safe-there-or-here?tmpl=component

Great reading at Prospero's Books in Kansas City!

I had the honor of sharing time with John Musgrave, who recently appeared in the Burns & Novick Vietnam series on PBS, and poet H.C. Palmer, Vietnam veteran field surgeon and poet.  

Order your copy 'Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home' from Tallgrass Books
here and request a personal inscription.

'Losing Francis' featured on WIBW-TV, Topeka

I had an opportunity to discuss Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home with Ralph Hipp on WIBW-TV, Topeka. Click on the image for the full interview.

'Losing Francis' released by Fomite Press

I think of Losing Francis not as a story of our family, or in a sense even him, but rather as a portrait of our nation's journey through a decade of American war.

Available now on Amazon.

'Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home' available now for pre-order

Slated for release by Fomite Press on March 1st, and available for pre-order now.

  

"Both harrowing and lovely, Losing Francis is a vibrant, indispensable document of life in our time.”  —Whitney Terrell, author of The Good Lieutenant

"A compelling and insightful book." —Mark Karlin, Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

"Losing Francis will surely take its earned place in the lamentably-large library of great literature of the home front.”  —Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, Oklahoma State Poet Laureate 2017-18, author of What I Learned at the War
 

“Robert F. Sommer has written a remarkably compelling book with boldness and startling passion.... It reverberates and teaches and beyond all else, it rings with hope.” 
—Barry Sanders, author of The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism

Learn more here.