Gemini Ink Great Books Series: Voices On Violence

Celebrate the richly textured worlds and irreplaceable voices of four classic authors this fall with Gemini Ink. Join our moderators San Antonio Poet Laureate Jenny Browne and Octavio Quintanilla in a discussion of one great book per month. A wine and cheese reception kicks off each event. This series is funded by Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation.

September 29: Here, Bullet by Brian Turner (Moderated by Jenny Browne)

“Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and Alice James’ own Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraqi war veteran Brian Turner writes power-fully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty, and skill. Based on Turner’s yearlong tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully rendered, unflinching description but, remarkably, leave the reader to draw conclusions or moral lessons. Here, Bullet is a must-read for anyone who cares about the war, regardless of political affiliation.” – Amazon

Jenny Browne is the author of three collections of poems Dear Stranger, The Second Reason, and At Once, all from the University of Tampa Press. Her poems and essays have appeared widely, including American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, The New York Times, Tin House, and Threepenny Review. A former James Michener Fellow at the University of Texas in Austin, she has received grants from the San Antonio Artist Foundation, the Texas Writers League, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently she is an Associate Professor of English at Trinity University and lives with her husband and daughters Lyda and Harriet in downtown San Antonio.