Conflict Literature (with Matt Gallagher)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2020

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt Gallagher is an American writer who served in the Iraq War as a U.S. Army captain. He first became known for his blog, which was shut down by the military, and his subsequent war memoir Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War. Since then he’s received an MFA from Columbia University and published several books of fiction and essays, proving himself to be a thoughtful contributor to a subspecies of literature known as conflict literature. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer who - although she is only 42 - has established herself as one of the world’s greatest authors. The Times Literary Supplement has called her the most prominent of a procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors who is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature. She too, is a contributor to conflict literature, particularly in her book Half of a Yellow Sun, which tells the story of the Biafran War through the perspective of multiple characters, including a professor, a British citizen, and a Nigerian houseboy. In this episode, Matt Gallagher joins us to discuss his experiences as a reader, writer, and soldier in Iraq; his first encounter with Adichie’s masterwork Half of a Yellow Sun; and how his experience as a soldier informed his relationship with literature. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. Music Credits: “At the Shore” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello, Matt Gallagher is an American writer who served in the Iraq War as a U.S. Army Captain.
0:16.6	He first became known for his blog, which was shut down by the military, and his subsequent
0:21.6	war memoir, Caboomb, Embracing the Suck in a savage little war.
0:27.2	Since then he's received an MFA from Columbia University and published several books of fiction and essays, proving himself to be a thoughtful
0:35.4	contributor to the literature of conflict.
0:39.0	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi is a Nigerian writer, who, although she is only 42, has established herself as
0:46.4	one of the world's greatest authors.
0:48.9	The Times Literary Supplement has called her the most prominent of a procession of critically acclaimed young
0:55.4	Anglophone authors who is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature. She too is a contributor to conflict literature,
1:05.2	particularly in her book Half of a Yellow Sun, which tells the story of
1:10.3	the Biafran War through the perspective of multiple characters, including a professor, a British citizen, and a Nigerian house boy.
1:20.0	Matt Gallagher joins us today to talk about his experiences as a reader, writer, and soldier in Iraq,
1:27.0	his first encounter with Odichy's masterwork, half of a yellow sun,
1:31.0	and how his experience as a soldier informed his relationship with literature.
1:37.0	That's all coming up on this episode of The History of literature. Okay, here we go. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Jack Wilson. A good episode today with a good guest, Matt Gallagher. It's one of the more thoughtful
2:06.3	people you are going to meet. He will tell us about his journey from being the son of two
2:11.4	protesters of the Vietnam War to a post-9-11 American soldier,
2:17.0	to being a voice the military wanted to stifle, and of course to his own literary projects including his forthcoming book Empire City a novel and his participation in the storybound project
2:30.0	Matt's an expert in conflict literature what soldiers do, how they cope, how they live, and how their actions impact the lives of civilians.
2:40.0	It's a complicated subject.
2:42.0	One of those charged environments where a single action or gesture
	...

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