The Writer’s Block: A Q&A with Whitney Terrell

Whitney Terrell was an embedded reporter in Iraq during 2006 and 2010, covering the war for The Washington Post Magazine, Slate and NPR. His war novel, The Good Lieutenant, moves in reverse, telling the story of the Occupation of Iraq from a female soldier’s perspective. The unusual structure was noted by Booklist as “destabilizing the notions of closure” that comes from traditional tellings of war stories, and its protagonist Emma Fowler represents a break from myopic narratives that skew masculine.

SampsoniaWay.org interviewed Whitney Terrell about the importance of war stories, and their influence over public opinion and perception of conflicts. He read at City of Asylum with Iraqi writer Sabreen Kadhim on July 8, 2016.