Thursday, October 15, 2009

Weekend Plans?

At the Hudson Opera House, Helen Benedict reads from her recent book, The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq.

The reading will take place Saturday, October 17, 8pm. The opera house is located at 327 Warren St. Hudson, New York...(518) 822-1438.


The Lonely Soldier:
The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
Beacon Press, April 2009

More women soldiers are fighting in Iraq than in any other American war in history, yet they face a dual challenge: they are participating in combat more than ever before, but because only one in ten soldiers is female, they are often painfully alone. This isolation, along with a military culture hostile to women, denies them the camaraderie soldiers depend on for survival and subjects them to sexual persecution by their comrades. As one soldier said, "I ended up waging my own war against an enemy dressed in the same uniform as mine." In The Lonely Soldier, Benedict humanizes the complex issues of war, misogyny, class, race, homophobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more through the compelling stories of five women of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds who served in Iraq between 2003 and 2004. By following these women from their childhoods through enlistment, training, active duty in Iraq, and home again, Benedict vividly brings to life their struggles and challenges. Between their stories she weaves in accounts from numerous other Iraq War veterans, illuminating the wrenching and private war of female soldiers. Benedict ends by showing how these women came to face the truth of war and by offering suggestions for how the military can improve—including distributing women more evenly and rejecting male recruits with records of domestic or sexual violence.

Hudson Opera House.


**There will also be Rally US out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan Now! Bring the Troops Home Now! at the State Capital Building in Albany. The rally starts at 12pm. There will be a march from the capital building along Washington Ave., to Lark Street, to Madison, returning to the starting point at West Capital Park.

More information here.

I'll be there taking photos.

1 Comments:

Blogger Helen Benedict said...

Hi GI Kate,
I am very excited to see your post and that you're planning to come to my reading tomorrow at the Hudson Opera House. I am eager to meet you!
By the way, I'm writing a new book now, a novel this time, about a woman soldier in Iraq who's name happens to be... Kate!
Helen Benedict
Author, The Lonely Soldier: Th Private War of Women Serving in Iraq

10/16/2009 09:46:00 AM  

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