Helen Benedict's new novel is Wolf Season.From her Q&A with Nichole Bernier at the Huffington Post:
Tell me about your research for WOLF SEASON, and where it fits in the spectrum of research and interviews you’ve done on women and the Iraq War.Learn more about Helen Benedict and her work at her official website.
BENEDICT: Because I had already spent many years interviewing women veterans, I had no need to revisit that. But for Wolf Season, and its precursor, my novel, Sand Queen, I also interviewed Iraqi refugees. They were all either former interpreters, or the spouses of interpreters, women and men. With great generosity, they told me about their lives in and out of war, helping me to create Naema, her son, Tariq, and her husband, Khalil, the Iraqi family in the novel.
Some of the knowledge I needed to write this book did not come from interviews and conscious research, however, but from chance observations and conversations with veterans and Iraqis I know. At times, it can be the slightest thing, something...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: Sand Queen.
The Page 69 Test: Sand Queen.
The Page 69 Test: Wolf Season.
--Marshal Zeringue