With the success of his memoir Jarhead, author Anthony Swofford found fame and fortune. In the ensuing years he went through a lot of cash, women and drugs all the while striving to reconcile his relationship with his father.
Swofford emerged from that time with a new memoir. Monday on Up to Date, guest host Brian Ellison talks with Swofford about that time in his life: how he went from owning a Manhattan apartment to renting a cabin in the Catskills; from traveling around the world at will to road trips in his dad’s Winnebago; and from rage to understanding.
Anthony Swofford's new memoir is titled Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails.
If you’re a veteran of combat, what positive or negative effects did war have on your life after returning home and how did you deal? If you’re a soldier and the child of a soldier, what is the dynamic between the two of you? Join our conversation: you can post on KCUR's Facebook page, email us at uptodate@kcur.org, Tweet us @KCURUptoDate, or call 816 235 2888 during the program.
Anthony Swofford served in a U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the Gulf War. After the war, he was educated at American River College; the University of California, Davis; and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught at the University of Iowa and Lewis and Clark College. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, Harper's, Men's Journal, The Iowa Review, and other publications. A Michener-Copernicus Fellowship recipient, he lives in New York with his wife and daughter.
