Publisher Announces New Poetry Collections from 21st Century Veterans
Middle West Press LLC , the Iowa-based business that administers The Aiming Circle community of practice as well as other military-writing projects, announces the pending release of three new poetry collections centering on or adjacent to issues of war, healing, and military service. The midwestern micro-publisher has now produced more than a dozen collections, anthologies, and chapbooks of war-related poetry and prose, offering readers new and unexpected narratives of what it means to be a U.S. military veteran or family-member . For example, Jessi M. Atherton's recent debut poetry collection, The Time War Takes , explores narratives of healing, growth, and resilience—through Colorado wildfires, trauma, and divorce. In 2005, Atherton deployed to Iraq as a Michigan National Guard citizen-soldier working in logistics. She is now a registered nurse—soon to be a nurse practitioner—working in veterans’ and women’s mental health. She lives and works in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn