Operation Homecoming (book)
Encyclopedia
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. These authors, including Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
and Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, held 50 on-base workshops for American troops and their families, inspiring them to write about their experiences since 9/11. The troops and their families responded with more than 10,000 pages of submissions.
Select short stories, essays, journal entries, poems, e-mails and photographs were collected into an anthology called Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families, published by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
.
The NEA initiative, funded by The Boeing Company, is the first book of its kind, giving a rare voice to U.S. troops and their families - unfiltered and firsthand accounts of what it's like to serve during wartime.
Through Operation Homecoming, these writers take us on convoys and patrols; to hospitals, flight decks, tarmacs and tents; into their homes as they wait for their loved ones to return.
With personal details and honest language, they show us the fear and rushing of heading into combat, the humor and boredom of daily life on the front lines, their relationships with Iraqis and Afghans, happy reunions at home, and mourning those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
A panel of celebrated authors, guided by historian Andrew Carroll
Andrew Carroll
Andrew Carroll is an American author, editor, activist, and historian. He is best known as the author of the 1999 New York Times best-selling Letters of a Nation: A Collection of Extraordinary American Letters and the 2001 New York Times best-selling book War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence...
, chose the 89 contributors who were published in Operation Homecoming. No one's story was excluded based on point of view; the book is largely apolitical and delivers an insider's look at what it means to be at war.
Before becoming editor of Operation Homecoming, Carroll had edited several bestselling and critically acclaimed books, and founded The Legacy Project. Random House launched Operation Homecoming on September 12, 2006 at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. Proceeds from the anthology will bring arts and cultural programming to U.S. military communities.
Developments
- Excerpts of Operation Homecoming were featured in the June 12, 2006 issue of The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
- Operation Homecoming also got a positive review in the September 10, 2006 edition of The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, noting that "after so much journalism, history, punditry and blogviating, much of what these unknown amateur scribes -- troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and members of their families -- have to say about the personal experience of war is fresh and intimate..."
- ABC NewsABC NewsABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
featured the book in an October 8, 2006 broadcast called “The Pain of War in Black and White.”
- A documentary based on the book, titled Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, aired on PBS on April 16, 2007 as part of the PBS series America at a Crossroads. The documentary was nominated by the International Documentary Association for best feature.
- On November 19, 2007, the film was named by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
as one of 15 films on its documentary feature Oscar shortlist. On January 22, 2008, Operation Homecoming was named by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
as one of five films nominated for a prize in the "Best Documentary Feature" category.
External links
- Operation Homecoming
- Andrew Carroll's Legacy Project, preserving war letters