Contested Terrain - Paperback

by Diane Kistner (Editor), D. a. Gray (Author)

CONTESTED TERRAIN captures the myriad identities inside a veteran shaped by birth, geography and, later, a set of experiences that belie any hand-me-down wisdom. "Cave Country" sees the green, fertile surface give way as the illusion collapses beneath the speaker's feet; in "Desert Skies," a barrage of war images hit faster than the speaker can process them; and "Returning to the Hill Country" shows the altered landscape, both physical and mental, that awaits his return. The final section, "A Handful of Dust" shifts from the individual to the culture of fear that has become a new, uncomfortable normal. Gray's speakers still believe that beauty exists-often in an uneasy coexistence with tension, hypervigilance, and an ever-changing consciousness.

Author Biography

D. A. Gray is the author of one previous collection of poems, Overwatch, from Grey Sparrow Press, 2011). His poetry has appeared in The Sewanee Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Kentucky Review, The Good Men Project, Still: The Journal, and War, Literature and the Arts, among many other journals. Gray recently completed his graduate work at the Sewanee School of Letters and at Texas A&M-Central Texas. A retired soldier and veteran, the author writes and lives in Central Texas with his wife, Gwendolyn.