Our Best War Stories

The best new and established voices from the Forever Wars! Thirty-six prize-winning works of 21st century war poetry, fiction, and non-fiction!Since 2016, administered by the Chicago-based literary journal Line of Advance, the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards have served to highlight not only some of the best contemporary voices writing about modern wars-Vietnam to Afghanistan-but to creatively commemorate the life of a U.S. Army leader and writer, beloved by his family and...
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The best new and established voices from the Forever Wars! Thirty-six prize-winning works of 21st century war poetry, fiction, and non-fiction!Since 2016, administered by the Chicago-based literary journal Line of Advance, the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards have served to highlight not only some of the best contemporary voices writing about modern wars-Vietnam to Afghanistan-but to creatively commemorate the life of a U.S. Army leader and writer, beloved by his family and troops.In 2020, the annual competition expanded to include the voices of writers who are immediate family members of those serving, or who have served, in the U.S. military.Finalists are awarded cash-prizes, and publication in Line of Advance. Many have gone on to write and publish larger works, including award-winning novels and poetry collections. Past Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Award winners and finalists include:Eric Chandler: U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, former F-16 fighter pilot over Iraq and Afghanistan, outdoor sports writer, and author of the 2017 poetry collection Hugging This Rock: Poems of Earth & Sky, Love & War.U.S. Marine Corps veteran, winner of the inaugural Syracuse University Press Veterans' Writing Award for best book-length fiction or non-fiction, and author of the forthcoming novel Revolutions of All Colors.Travis Klempan: U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Iraq War veteran, and author of the novel Have Snakes, Need Birds.Ray McPadden: U.S. Army Ranger veteran, winner of the American Library Association's W.Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, and author of the novel And the Whole Mountain Burned.Bill Upton, U.S. Army veteran, a former crew chief on C-7A "Caribou" aircraft over Vietnam, and author of the memoir Pizza and Mortars: Ba-muoi-ba & Body Bags.