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Operation Homecoming CD Cover

The Operation Homecoming audio CD features the literature of war, read in the voices of ten of America's most esteemed writers, most of whom served in war themselves. Narrated by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, the CD presents fiction, poetry, letters, and memoirs from the Civil War, World War I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The Operation Homecoming CD will be given free to troops to help them explore and realize their own literary potential. Contributor biographies...


Copies of Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience CD can be ordered free of charge through our Publications section.

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1. WELCOME    Listen to audio sample  
2. Dana Gioia, writing the wartime experience

LETTERS HOME
3. Hugh Alexander Leslie, read by Edward Gero (WWI)
4. Hazel Jane Raines, read by Diane Cooper-Gould (WWII)    Listen to audio sample   
5. Samuel Cabble, read by Ed Bishop (Civil War)
6. Sullivan Ballou, read by Edward Gero (Civil War)

FICTION
7. Shelby Foote, from Shiloh (Civil War)
8. Bobbie Ann Mason, from In Country (Vietnam)
9. Barry Hannah, from "Testimony of Pilot" (Vietnam)

MEMOIR
10. James Salter, from Burning the Days (Korea)
11. Tobias Wolff, from In Pharaoh's Army (Vietnam)    Listen to audio sample    
12. Will D. Campbell, "A Christmas Gift" (WWII)
13. Will D. Campbell, the return of the Enola Gay
14. Victor Davis Hanson, "A Ring" (WWII)

POETRY
15. Richard Wilbur, "First Snow in Alsace" (WWII)
16. Marilyn Nelson, "Star-Fix" (WWII)
17. Louis Simpson recalls the Battle of the Bulge (WWII)    Listen to audio sample   
18. Louis Simpson, "On the Ledge" (WWII)    Listen to audio sample   

ON WRITING
19. Tobias Wolff on writing influences
20. Shelby Foote on writing influences
21. Richard Wilbur on writing
22. Louis Simpson on military experience
23. James Salter on writing    Listen to audio sample   

24. CREDITS