The Veterans and Family Student Association (VFSA) at the University of Oregon presents an evening with Phil Klay, author of the short story collection Redeployment, on Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 7 p.m. in 156 Straub Hall.
Phil Klay served in Iraq’s Anbar Province from January 2007 to February 2008 as a Public Affairs Officer with the U.S. Marine Corps. Following his service he earned an MFA from Hunter College. In 2014 Redeployment won the National Book Award for Fiction. In 2015 he received the Marine Corps Heritage Foundations James Webb award for fiction dealing with U.S. Marines or Marine Corps life. Dexter Filkins wrote in the New York Times Book Review, “In Klay’s hands, Iraq comes across not merely as a theater of war but as a laboratory of the human condition in extremis. Redeployment is hilarious, biting, whipsawing and sad. It’s the best thing written so far on what the war did to people’s souls.”
The event is organized by VFSA member Jared Smith. He says, “As a veteran, I thought [Klay’s] book did an excellent job of capturing the emotion and experiences of war, a subject that I find hard to articulate to those who have not experienced it. With over 450 veterans on the campus, most students have had a class with at least one veteran, but the majority of the students have never engaged with a veteran about their experiences.” Smith hopes that Klay’s visit to the university will spur a dialogue between veterans and non-veterans, which could help create a stronger, more vibrant campus community.
Klay’s talk, cosponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center, is free and open to the public. It will be followed by a book sale signing. For more information or for disability accommodations contact the Oregon Humanities Center at ohc@uoregon.edu or (541) 346-3934.
Date: Thursday, May 21, 2105
Time: 6 pm Appetizer in the Straub Hall Atrium, 7 pm Talk in Straub Hall 156
Place: Straub Hall on the University of Oregon Campus
Please note: A part of all book sales will profit the Veteran and Family Student Association