Powder: Writing by Women in Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq

by Lisa Bowden (Editor), Shannon Cain (Editor)

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry. Women's Studies. POWDER brings us poetry and personal essays from 19 women who have served in all branches of the United States military. Contributors to POWDER have seen conflicts from Somalia to Vietnam to Desert Shield. Many are book authors and winners of writing awards and fellowships; several hold MFAs from some of the country's finest programs. The essays and poems here are inspired by an attempted rape by a Navy SEAL; an album of photos of the enemy dead; heat exhaustion in Mosul; a first jump from an airplane; fending off advances from Iraqi men; interrogating suspected terrorists; the contemplation of suicide; and a poignant connection with women and children in Bosnia. Their writing exposes the frontline intersection of women and soldiering, describing from a steely-eyed female perspective the horror, the humor, the cultural clashes and the fear.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

168 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Shannon Cains stories are forthcoming or have appeared in American Short Fiction, Tin House, The Colorado Review, The Massachusetts Review and the New England Review, among others. Her work has received the Pushcart Prize for 2009, the O. Henry Prize for 2008, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006.

Shannon earned her MFA in 2005 from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She is the co-editor, with Lisa Bowden, of Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq (Kore Press, 2008). Shannon is the fiction editor for Kore Press, an independent publisher of books by women. She has taught fiction writing at the University of Arizona, Gotham Writers Workshop, UCLA Extension, Arizona State University and as a private coach and workshop leader. She lives in downtown Tucson, Arizona and is the Artist-in-Residence for Tucsons Ward One. Her current creative project is Tucson, the Novel: An Experiment in Literature and Civil Discourse."

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anthology of women's writing about service in the military. The mixture of prose and poetry makes for a fast but interesting read. However, while one can quickly read the words, it is thought provoking. Not often does one think of women in the military and how that life affects them. The short biographies at the end of the book are a must read as they show the differences in background of the Veterans and puts some of the writing in context.

[Rayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just wanted to cry through the entire book. And men don't think we can do well in battle. Evidently we do better in battle and as POW sometimes.

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief memoirs in prose and poetry by women about their time in the U.S. military. The book was published in 2008, and a lot of the memoirs are about the War in Iraq. Some of the women feel strengthened by their time as soldiers, while others feel beaten down by the hell that is war or by a military culture that was hostile to them as women.

There is a poem by Khadijah Queen, "Stretcher I," about a shopkeeper who is dying. It opens: "Lying on his back, both lungs collapsed, / a storekeeper loses his goods." The poem pivots to declare (I believe) the narrator's perspective: "he cannot call out for help. / Help believes it has already come..." I believe Queen is inserting/asserting her own presence there as a potential self-appointed savior who has already come but realizes she can't do anything useful: she serves only as "the eyes that greet him". The poem ends with an inventory of "Goods lost: 1 wedding ring. 1 class ring..."

I also like Deborah Fries' poem "Alabama":

unwanted government
skills that I can use here in the states or abroad —
practical as performing a trache with a ballpoint pen or
handling an evisceration like a spilled purse. Skills
I don't use. It's the summer of '68 and I spend my time
in lesser service: days consoling the sick, nights listening
to Steppenwolf on a blanket along the flight line with
another medic, smoking something bought in Selma...

The author bios at the end are also revealing about what they feel about their service (in retrospect) and how it changed them.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have a long flight coming up? This is the perfect book to take along with you. Keeps your attention, goes by quickly, and you can finish it in 3 hours.

That being said, I don't want its quickness to demean its quality. It was a very powerful compilation of women's war stories. I expected it to be a little "darker," but it had a good mixture of deep, lighthearted, and funny stories. While I personally didn't connect as strongly with the poems, I still valued their art and ponder their meaning.
As someone who spends a lot of volunteer hours with veterans, including female veterans, I felt privileged to be able to read this and gain a little insight to the struggles or even experiences these women had. As if I doubted it before, but words that come to mind after reading are strong, enduring, respectable, and brave. Simply put -- thank you for your service, ladies. You are my idols and heroes!

[Lauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to recommend this to anyone who sees this review. One of the women in the book and I went to school together. She's easily the best person on social media, and I'm fortunate to be her friend.
This isn't an easy or quick read though it's a short essays. However, it is honest and tells of the women who have served our country over the past 50 years.

[Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this while at the AWP conference and, for the most part, enjoyed the essays, short stories, and poems about women and war. My favorite is Charlotte M. Brock's "Hymn," about working with a Mortuary Affairs unit in Iraq.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Groundbreaking book including viewpoints from different women, different wars, different services

[Naughty Edition Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just wanted to cry through the entire book. And men don't think we can do well in battle. Evidently we do better in battle and as POW sometimes.