Brian Turner (born 1967) is an American poet, essayist, and professor. He won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award for his debut collection, ''Here, Bullet'' (

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...

) the first of many awards and honors received for this collection of poems about his experience as a soldier in the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

. His honors since include a Lannan Literary Fellowship and NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, and the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship. His second collection, shortlisted for the 2010

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize for poetry awarded by the T. S. Eliot Foundation. For many years it was awarded by the Eliots' Poetry Book Society (UK) for "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or t ...

is ''Phantom Noise'' (Alice James Books, USA; Bloodaxe Books, UK, 2010).

Early life and education

Turner was born in

Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-most populous city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 38th most populous in California, and 183 ...

, and raised in

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

and then

Madera County Madera County (), officially the County of Madera, is a county located at the geographic center of the U.S. state of California. It features a varied landscape, encompassing the eastern San Joaquin Valley and the central Sierra Nevada, with Ma ...

through high school and attended

Fresno City College Fresno City College (FCC or "Fresno City") is a public community college in Fresno, California. It is part of the State Center Community College District within the California Community Colleges system. Fresno City College operates on a semeste ...

before transferring to

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...

for his BA and MA. He received his MFA from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

. He taught English in South Korea for a year, and traveled to Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.

Military service

Turner is a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

veteran, and was an infantry team leader for a year in the

beginning November 2003, with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. In 1999 and 2000 he was with the 10th Mountain Division, deployed in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

Career

Turner has seen his poems published in ''The Cortland Review,' Poetry Daily, Atlanta Review, Crab Orchard Review, Georgia Review, Rattle,

Virginia Quarterly Review The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussio ...

,'' and ''ZYZZYVA,'' and in anthologies including ''Voices in Wartime: The Anthology'' (Whit Press, 2005) and ''Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families'' (Random House, 2006). His published essays include one for ''National Geographic'' and a series of essays for ''The New York Times'' blog, ''Home Fires.'' Turner received major media attention for ''Here, Bullet,'' interviewed or featured in ''The New Yorker,'' ''The New York Times,'' on ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,'' on ''Morning Edition'' and other NPR programs, ''The Verb'' (BBC), and many other venues. He was featured in the film, '' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience,'' nominated for a 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

published the U.K. edition of ''Here, Bullet'' in 2007 His works have been included in such anthologies as ''The Best American Poetry 2007'' and ''A mind apart: poems of melancholy, madness, and addiction''. Texts by Turner are the basis of the large-scale musical composition '' Dreams of the Fallen'' by

Jake Runestad Jake Runestad (born May 20, 1986) is an American composer and conductor of classical music based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has composed music for a wide variety of musical genres and ensembles, but has achieved greatest acclaim for his work ...

, first performed at

The National WWII Museum The National WWII Museum, formerly known as The National D-Day Museum, is a military history museum located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., on Andrew Higgins Drive between Camp Street and Magazine Street. The ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Veterans Day Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. It coincides with holidays in several countries, i ...

, 11 November 2013.

Books

* ''Here, Bullet'',

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, ;

, UK, 2007, . * ''Phantom Noise'',

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, ;

, UK, 2010, . * ''My Life as a Foreign Country: A Memoir'', 2014; W. W. Norton & Company * ''The Kiss: Intimacies from Writers'', 2018, (editor); W. W. Norton & Company * ''The Goodbye World Poem'', 2023;

Honors and awards

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

: 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry * 2012: JUSFC Japan-US Friendship Commission Fellowship * 2009: 2009 Fellow Award from

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship The Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship is given annually to a U.S.-born poet to spend one year outside North America in a country the recipient feels will most advance his or her work. When poet Amy Lowell died in 1925, her will established ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

: 2008 Charity Randall Citation *

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

: NEA Literature Fellowship in PoetryNEA 2007 Literature Fellowships in Poetry
*

Poets' Prize The Poets' Prize is awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year. The $3000 annual prize is donated by a committee of about 20 American poets, who each nominate two books and who ...

for ''Here Bullet'' *

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

: Maine Literary Award in Poetry *

: Northern California Book Award in Poetry *

: PEN Center USA "Best in the West" Literary Award in Poetry *

: Sheila Margaret Motten Award from the New England Poetry Club *

Lannan Literary Fellowship The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...

: Beatrice Hawley Award

Personal life

Turner married fellow poet Ilyse Kusnetz (1966-2016) in 2010. He created an album titled ''11 11 (Me Smiling)'' using lines from her poetry, in some instances in her own voice, from tapes of her readings, and others, him reading from her poems.

References

External links

Guernica: A Magazine of Art and Politics: "Poetry's Urban Landscape"Poetry Blog: Brian Turner's Poetry Journal at the Poetry FoundationVideo: Brian Turner Reading at the Santa Cruz BookshopNew York Foundation for the Arts > Interview with Brian TurnerAudio: Brian Turner Reading for ''Fishousepoems.org''

Lannan Foundation - Interview: Brian Turner and Bruce Weigl with Michael Silverblatt

Blue Flower Arts > Author's Booking Agency"A Conversation with Brian Turner"
''Virginia Quarterly Review'', 08-27-2008
"Stories from the Suck: The First Wave of Iraq War Narratives"
Stacey Peebles,
Berfrois
', 04-15-2011

Reviews

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Brian 1967 births Living people American male poets American essayists Educators from Nevada Writers from Fresno, California University of Oregon alumni Fresno City College alumni Sierra Nevada College California State University, Fresno alumni National Endowment for the Arts Fellows United States Army personnel of the Iraq War American male essayists War poets United States Army soldiers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers