Brian Turner is an American poet. He served for seven years in the U.S. Army, completing tours of duty in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1999-2000) before being sent in November 2003 to Iraq. He is the winner of the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award for his debut, Here, Bullet, a collection of poems about his experience as a soldier during the Iraq War. In this podcast, Turner talks to Jennifer Williams about the poetry that came out of his experiences in the US military, and how poetry can be a line thrown out by the breath or a question planted inside a reader.

Recorded in association with StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival at StAnza 2014.

Many thanks to James Iremonger (www.jamesiremonger.co.uk) for the podcast music.