Steven Moore
Where I Was From
People in my college town are talking about their small-town Midwestern upbringing like it was a war they barely survived. I worked at a gas station, my friends bagged groceries and cooked pizzas,...
Song for No One’s Backyard
Jim McCrumb always told the same stories to every new batch of student employees and gave everyone a lot of chances. I was paid to answer phones and fax documents for the planning department at...
What Was True Then
Steven, in 2011, lives in a remote valley in the Hindu Kush mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. He carries a standard black M-4 carbine, firing the standard 5.56 millimeter, packing the standard...
The Case for Zakir
Zakir Mohammad went on patrol with a platoon of American soldiers, but his application for a Special Immigrant Visa to America has been denied six times. Now Zakir lives in hiding. Zakir spends his...
On Weather: Against The River
Sergeant Randall dropped his tailgate, got out, asked who wanted a Coors, and filled one with the other. I talked myself into it, but still had a Coors. The Sunday afternoon of drill, our commander...
Beside the Point
Corporal Johnson had two fake front teeth, and the buttstock smashed into his face and knocked them out. Soldiers have to know about details because knowing the details can prevent people from...
The Trouble with Ceremony
Specialist Taylor's appendix burst and we were stuck in the mountains with one vehicle immobilized. Joan Didion's writing helped me deal with my anxiety over this matter, but her stories are...
About the Days
1st PLT B-CO IAW 5th Kandak & SWT conducted MTD recon patrol to Kama Daka & ABP/Shilman Pass. A gruff cowboy approaches a boy lying in the grass of an open field and pokes him in the...
The Middle Stone
The Chicago Cubs traded for veteran first-baseman Fred McGriff, and a friend gave me a going-away present that I still love. At a house party, one of my friends told me he would help me run away...
What Was True Then
Steven, in 2011, lives in a remote valley in the Hindu Kush mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. He carries a standard black M-4 carbine, firing the standard 5.56 millimeter, packing the standard...
Walls Made of Earth
I shaved each morning in the Valley with a conventional razor, a metal canteen cup, one bottle of water, and a portable mirror. The walls cost twenty-thousand dollars per hundred feet. The walls...