This page is a work in progress. Many thanks to Kayla Williams, whose article “Women Writing War” in The Los Angeles Review of Books sent me down this road and provided me with the first list of war memoirs by contemporary authors.
The selection and organization below are personal, and are not intended to be definitive. Women did not serve in the U.S. armed forces officially until World War I, so to represent women’s service in earlier periods of American history I’ve chosen writing by some who served as nurses, as spies, and in disguise as men. Women also served alongside men as cooks and laundresses, some of whom were given military pensions as early as the Revolutionary War.
Harriet Tubman served in the Union Army as a nurse and spy, and is believed to be the first woman to lead a successful raid.
I expect to see much more work by women veterans in the future – especially by women veterans of color, who have served since the Revolutionary War and whose stories are underrepresented in the literature I’ve been able to find to date. (The first woman killed in combat in the service of the United States was Sally St. Clare, described as a Creole woman, who followed her husband into the Continental Army disguised as a man. During the Battle of Savannah on December 29, 1778, after her husband was shot, she replaced him at his cannon and continued firing until she herself was shot and killed. She was only discovered to be a woman after her death.)
If you’d like to recommend a book, essay, or poem by a woman veteran for this bibliography, please let me know!
HISTORIES
Histories of Women Veterans, Written by Women Veterans
Bell, Jerri, and Tracy Crow. It’s My Country Too: Women’s Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.
Holm, Jeanne, Maj. Gen., USAF (Ret.) Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1992. The archivists at the Women in Military Service for America consider this book the standard-setter for history of women in the Armed Forces.
Monahan, Evelyn, and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee. A Few Good Women: America’s Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New York: Knopf, 2010. Monahan served in the WAC from 1961-67; Neidel-Greenlee was a Navy nurse on active duty 1962-65 and 1989-91. They have written three other nonfiction books about military nurses.
Sarnecky, Mary T. A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
Stremlow, Mary V. A History of the Women Marines, 1946–1977. Washington, DC: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1986. Accessed June 8, 2016. http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/A%20history%20of%20the%20women%20marines%201946–1977%20pcn%2019000309400_1.pdf.
NONFICTION (MOSTLY MEMOIR)
Revolutionary War
Gannett, Deborah Sampson. “An Address, Delivered with Applause, at the Federal-Street Theatre, Boston, Four Successive Nights of the Different Plays, Beginning March 22, 1802; And After, at Other Principal Towns, a Number of Nights Successively at Each Place.” Speech, March 22, 1802. In Extra Number. Vol. 124 of Magazine of History with Notes and Queries. Sharon, MA: Sharon Historical Society, 1905.
Osborn, Sarah. Pension Deposition of Sarah Osborn. Last modified November 20, 1837. NARA M804, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files; Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800–ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775–ca. 1900; Record Group 15; Roll 1849; New York; Pension Number W. 4558. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington dc. Digital file.
American Civil War
Alcott, Louisa May. Civil War Hospital Sketches. New York: Dover Publications, 2006. Yes, this is the same Louisa May Alcott who wrote Little Women. Her tenure as a war nurse because she contracted typhoid. It was treated with mercury, which left her disabled with pain, weakness, and hallucinations for the rest of her life.
Boyd, Belle. Belle Boyd: In Camp and Prison. 1865. Reprinted with a new foreword by Drew Gilpin Faust and a new introduction by Sharon Kennedy-Nolle. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.
Edmonds, Sarah Emma. Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse and Spy: A Woman’s Adventures in the Union Army. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1999.
Hancock, Cornelia. Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863–1865. Edited by Henrietta Stratton Jaquette. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
Reynolds, Mary. Mary Reynolds to John J. Pettus, November 26, 1861. In Women Who Kept the Lights: An Illustrated History of Female Lighthouse Keepers, by Mary Louise Clifford and J. Candace Clifford. Williamsburg va: Cypress Communications, 1993, 34-35.
St. Louis Daily Times. “Cathy Williams’ Story.” January 2, 1876.
Taylor, Susie King. A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, Late 1st South Carolina Volunteers. Edited by Patricia W. Romero. New York: Markus Seiner, 1988.
Telford, Emma P. “Harriet: The Modern Moses of Heroism and Visions.” 1905. The Telford Manuscript. Cayuga Museum of History and Art, Auburn, NY.
Van Lew, Elizabeth L. A Yankee Spy in Richmond: The Civil War Diary of “Crazy Bet” Van Lew. Edited by David D. Ryan. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1996.
Velazquez, Loreta Janeta. The Woman in Battle: The Civil War Narrative of Loreta Velazquez, Cuban Woman and Confederate Soldier. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
Wakeman, Sarah Rosetta. An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864. (Ed. Lauren Cook Burgess.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Wakeman’s sex was discovered only upon her death from dysentery, and she is buried under her male pseudonym.
Walker, Mary Edwards. “Incidents Connected with the Army.” Mary Edwards Walker Papers. Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, NY.
Spanish-American War
Doxsee, Kittie Whiting Eastman. “Memoirs of a Spanish-American War Nurse.” Women in Military Service for America. Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Arlington, VA.
McGee, Anita Newcomb. “Report to the Daughters of the American Revolution.” Address, June 28, 1898. U.S. Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History. http://history.amedd.army.mil/ancwebsite/McGeewhmspecial/McGee_Extract.html. Quoted in “Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee and What She Has Done for the Nursing Profession” by Dita H. Kinney, originally published in Trained Nurse and Hospital Review, March 1901.
McGee, Anita Newcomb. “Report to the Daughters of the American Revolution.” Address, September 1898. U.S. Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History. http://history.amedd.army.mil/ancwebsite/McGeewhmspecial/McGee_Extract.html.[113] Quoted in “Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee and What She Has Done for the Nursing Profession” by Dita H. Kinney, originally published in Trained Nurse and Hospital Review, March 1901.
New York Times. “Kept House Nineteen Years on Robbin’s Reef.” March 5, 1905. Article on Kate Walker, USLHS.
In World War I, women served as telephone operators in the Navy and Marine Corps in the same capacity as men. Image courtesy of U.S. Army Center of Military History.
World War I
Anderson, Merle Egan. “Women in Military Service for America.” Unpublished memoir. Women in Military Service for America Foundation, Arlington, VA.
Ebbert, Jean, and Marie-Beth Hall. The First, the Few, the Forgotten: Navy and Marine Corps Women in World War I. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 2002.
Hasson, Esther Voorhees. “The Navy Nurse Corps.” American Journal of Nursing 9, No. 4 (March 1909): 267–68.
Leibrand, Lela. “The Girl Marines.” In Women Marines in World War I, by Linda L. Hewitt. Washington, DC: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1974, 75-77.
MacDonald, Beatrice. “Experiences in a British Casualty Clearing Station and an American Evacuation Hospital during 1917 and 1918.” Quarterly Magazine, 15–22. Accessed June 7, 2016. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:rad.schl:10354150. In Beatrice MacDonald Scrapbook, Ann Fraser Brewer Papers, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
There are lots of pictures of real women in uniform during World War II, but I love the recruiting posters. Why can’t I look this good in dark lipstick?
World War II
Bessey, Carol Hossner. Battle of the WAC. CHB Publishing, 1999. (Memoir.)
Burrell, Prudence (Hathaway) Burns. Hathaway. Harlo, 1997. (Memoir, African-American nurse who was not allowed to treat white patients because of her race.)
Camp, LaVonne Telshaw. Lingering Fever: A World War II Nurse’s Memoir. McFarland, 2012.
Earley, Charity Adams. One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC. Texas A&M University Military History Series 12. College Station: Texas A&M University, 1989.
Ferris, Inga Fredriksen. A Few Good Women: Memoirs of a World War II Marine. Trafford Publishing, 2006.
Fort, Cornelia. “At the Twilight’s Last Gleaming.” Woman’s Home Companion, June 1943. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/filmmore/reference/primary/lettersarticles01.html.
García Rosado, Carmen. Las WACS: Participación de la Mujer Boricua en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Appears to have been published in Puerto Rico in 2007. (Nonfiction, in Spanish. I didn’t have time to parse through the Spanish carefully, but I think it’s a scholarly work about the two hundred Puerto Rican women recruited into the Women’s Army Corps in World War II, rather than a memoir. The author was one of those women.)
Gott, Kay. Hazel Ah Ying Lee, Women AirForce Service Pilot, World War II: A Portrait. Kay Gott, 1996. (Biography; WASPs.)
Graydon, Mary Ellen (Liz). Love & War (One WAC Remembers World War II). N.p.: , printed by author, 1998.
Hall, Nona Jane. Our Home on the Hill, 1943-1946. Chugiak, Alaska: Northbooks, 2006. (Memoir, USMC.)
Herron, Berneice A. Dearest Folks: Sister Leatherneck’s Letter Excerpts and World War II Experiences. N.p.: iUniverse, 2006.
Hancock, Joy Bright. Lady in the Navy: A Personal Reminiscence. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2013.
Haydu, Bernice “Bee” Falk. Letters Home, 1944-1945. Unknown publisher, 2008. (Memoir; WASPs.)
Henderson, Aileen Kilgore. Stateside Soldier: Life in the Women’s Army Corps 1944-1945. University of South Carolina Press, 2001. (Memoir in diary and letters)
Herron, Berneice A. Dearest Folks: Sister Leatherneck’s Letter Excerpts and WWII Experiences. iUniverse, 2006. (Memoir, USMC)
Hodgson, Marion Stegeman. Winning My Wings: A Woman Airforce Service Pilot in World War II. Bright Sky Press, 2005. (Memoir, WASPs.)
Holm, Major General Jeanne M. (USAF, Ret.) In Defense of a Nation: Servicewomen in World War II. Vandamere Press, 1998. (History.)
Jopling, Lucy Wilson. Warrior in White. Watercress Press, 1990. (Memoir, Army nurse.)
Kelly, Emma Chenault. Emmaline Goes to War: A Historic and Entertaining Account of One of the Most Trying Times in U.S. History…from a WAC’s Viewpoint. BLT & J Publications, 1992. (I’m not sure if that subtitle is part of the book’s official title, but I liked it so much that I included it anyway.)
Larson, Effie Ruth. I Served Uncle Sam in World War II. Vantage Press, 1996. (Memoir; WAC.)
Lockwood, Allison McCrillis. Touched with Fire: An American Community in World War II. Daily Hampshire Gazette, 1993. (History of World War II in the town of Northampton, Massachusetts, written by a former Army public affairs officer.)
Loving, Gerry A. Girl in a Pink Skirt. 1st Book Library, 2003. (Memoir; WAC.)
Lyne, Mary C., and Kay Arthur. Three Years behind the Mast: The Story of the United States Coast Guard SPARS. N.p., 1946. Accessed June 7, 2016. http://www.uscg.mil/history/WomenIndex.asp.
Mangerich, Agnes Jensen. Albanian Escape: The True Story of U.S. Army Nurses behind Enemy Lines. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999.
Noggle, Anne. For God, Country, and the Thrill of It: Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1990.
Pullman, Sally Hitchcock. Letters Home: Memoirs of One Army Nurse in the Southwest Pacific in World War II. AuthorHouse, 2004.
Putney, Martha S. When the Nation Was in Need: Blacks in the Women’s Army Corps During World War II. Scarecrow Press, 1992. (Scholarly; written by a professor of history who had served in the WAAC/WAC.)
Reed, Hazel Andrews. My Twentieth Century: The Autobiography That Inspires Others to Keep Moving! Rainbows End Co., 2007. (Memoir, WAAC, lots of great photos.)
Robinson, Harriet Green. The Gaylord WACs. Laurel Press, 2001. (Memoir.)
Schorer, Avis D. A Half Acre of Hell: A Combat Nurse in WWII. Lakeville, MN: Galde Press, 2000.
Settle, Mary Lee. All the Brave Promises: Memories of Aircraft Woman 2nd Class 2146391. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. (Memoir.) Settle, turned down for service in the WAC because of poor eyesight, traveled to England and enlisted in the Royal Air Force Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Settle went on to write a total of twenty-three books.
Sforza, Eula Awbrey. A Nurse Remembers. Eula Awbrey Sforza, 1991. (Memoir)
Thursten, Doris “Joy.” A WAC Looks Back: Recollections and Poems of WWII. Norvega Press, 1996. (What’s not to love about a title like that? Memoir – with poems!)
Wake, Nancy. The White Mouse. Santa Fe: Sun Books, 1987 (reprint).
Webb, Pauline Denman. Letters from Tinian 1945. Xlibris, 2009. (Memoir)
Wehry, Maxine Cardinal. A Kindred Spirit. CreateSpace, 2012. (Memoir, USMCWR)
Williams, Denny. To the Angels. N.p.: Denson Press, 1985.
Wingo, Josette Dermody. “Mother Was a Gunner’s Mate”: World War II in the WAVES. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994.
Post-WWII
Ruggieri, Mary A. (Kiddie). From Japan With Love: A Remarkable Memoir of Post-War Japan, Told in Letters and Photographs. Portsmouth Publishing, 2007.
Smith, Margaret Chase. Margaret Chase Smith to James V. Forrestal, April 22, 1948. In Declaration of Conscience, by Margaret Chase Smith. Edited by William C. Lewis Jr. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972, 96-97. Also: Women in the Armed Forces—Regular Versus Reserve, 80th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1948) (extension of remarks of Hon. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine in the House of Representatives, Tuesday, April 6, 1948).
Korean War
Chapman, Sarah Griffin. “U.S. Navy Medical Department Oral History Program Oral History with LT (Ret.) Sara Griffin Chapman, NC, USN.” Interview by Jan K. Herman. Navy Medicine. Last modified March 18, 2002. Accessed June 7, 2016. http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/nmhistory/Oral%20histories2/chapman,%20sara.pdf.
Coleman, Eunice. Letter, November 15, 1950. U.S. Medical Department AMEDD Records 1947–1961, RG No. 112, 390, Row 17, Compartment 34, Shelf 5–, Boxes 22–24. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.
Coleman, Eunice. Letter, January 1, 1951. U.S. Medical Department AMEDD Records 1947–1961, RG No. 112, 390, Row 17, Compartment 34, Shelf 5–, Boxes 22–24. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park md.
Kennedy, Mildred Stumpe. “Oral History Interview with Mildred Stumpe Kennedy.” 2001. Women in Military Service for America. Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Arlington, VA.
Kirnak, Jean. “Kunuri.” #4460 Folder 1. Ina Bowen Kirnak Collection. Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Arlington, VA.
Omori, Frances. Quiet Heroes: Navy Nurses of the Korean War 1950-1953 Far East Command. Smith House Press, 2001.
Witt, Linda, Judith Bellafaire, Britta Granrud, and Mary Jo Binker. “A Defense Weapon Known to Be of Value”: Servicewomen of the Korean War Era. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2005.
Vietnam War
Burton, Cora. If I Don’t Laugh, I’ll Cry Forever: My War Experience in Vietnam. Copyright Lieutenant Colonel Cora L. Burton. Printed by Central Plains Book Manufacturing, 2005.
Dulinsky, Barbara Jean. Unpublished memoir. Archives and Special Collections. Library of the Marine Corps, Quantico, VA.
Earls, Linda S. Vietnam I’m Going! Letters from a Young WAC in Vietnam to her Mother. XLibris, 2012. (Memoir through letters.)
Hovis, Bobbi and Shea Buckley (Illustrator). Station Hospital Saigon: A Navy Nurse in Vietnam, 1963-1964. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1992.
Johnson, LouAnne. Making Waves: A Woman in This Man’s Navy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986.
Lowery, Donna. Women Vietnam Veterans: Our Untold Stories. N.p.: AuthorHouse, 2015.
“Oral History Interview with Lee Wilson.” Lee Wilson Papers (wv0449). Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives. University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Pilato, LtC Angel Pilato. Angel’s Truck Stop: A Woman’s Love, Laughter, and Loss during the Vietnam War. Angel Pilato, 2011.
Powell, Mary Reynolds. A World of Hurt: Between Innocence and Arrogance in Vietnam. Greenleaf Book Group, 2002.
Sevier, Elisabeth. War Without a Front: The Memoirs of a French Army Nurse in Vietnam. Robert Sevier, 1999.
Smith, Winnie. American Daughter Gone to War. Gallery Books, 1994.
Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.
Van Devanter, Lynda, ed. Visions of War, Dreams of Peace: Writings of Women in the Vietnam War. Comp. Joan A. Furey. New York: Warner, 1991. Print. Poetry, Vietnam.
Cold War/Cold War Era
Anderson, Ruth M. and J. M. (Andy) Anderson. Barbed Wire for Sale: The Hungarian Transition to Democracy, 1988-1991. Poetic License, 1999. (Memoir; USAF, Attaché Program, Hungary.)
Barkalow, Carol, with Andrea Raab. In the Men’s House. New York: Poseidon Press, 1990.
Bell, Jerri. “Vigil.” Little Patuxent Review Summer (2014): n. pag. Print. Essay, Cold War.
Bray, Linda L. “Oral History Interview with Linda L. Bray.” 2008. Linda L. Bray Papers (wv0432.5.001). Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives. University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Cleckley, Julia Jeter, Brigadier General (Ret.), with M. L. Doyle. A Promise Fulfilled: My Life as a Wife and Mother, Soldier and General Officer. CreateSpace, 2014.
Crow, Tracy. Eyes Right: Confessions from a Woman Marine. Lincoln and London: Board of Regents of the U of Nebraska, 2012. Print. Memoir, Cold War.
Cummings, Mary Lou. Hornet’s Nest: The Experience of One of the Navy’s First Female Fighter Pilots. iUniverse Inc., 2000. (Memoir: 1988-1998.)
Dickerson, Debra J. An American Story. Anchor, 2001. (Memoir, USAF, African-American woman, sexual trauma.)
Diekman, Diane J. Navy Greenshirt: A Leader Made, Not Born. Alturia Publishing, 2001. (Memoir; 1970s.)
Disher, Sharon Hanley. First Class: Women Join the Ranks at the Naval Academy. Annapolis, MD: Bluejacket Books, 2013. (History; USNA integration.)
Holm, Jeanne M. “Interview with Jeanne M. Holm (1/23/2003).” Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans History Project. Accessed August 7, 2015. https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.04293/transcript?id=mv0001.
Maloney, Linda, ed. Military Fly Moms: Sharing Memories, Building Legacies, Inspiring Hope. Dowell md: Tannenbaum, 2012.
Maloney, Linda. “She’s Got Grit: A Conversation with Pioneer Navy Navigator Linda Maloney.” Interview by Shannon Huffman Polson. The Grit Project. Last modified November 10, 2015. Accessed June 7, 2016. http://aborderlife.com/grit-project-blog/2015/11/10/grit-flygirl-linda.
McAleer, Donna. Porcelain on Steel: Women of West Point’s Long Gray Line. Fortis Publishing, 2010. (History; USMA integration.)
Rader, Stephanie Czech. Interview by Jane Maliszewski. Arlington VA, September 2006. Oral History #074520, two tapes, collection of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation.
Desert Shield/Desert Storm
Figueroa, Denise. The Most Qualified: A Nurse Reservist’s Experience in the Persian Gulf War. Vantage Press, 2002. (Memoir.)
Kassner, Elizabeth. Desert Storm Journal: A Nurse’s Story. Cottage Press, 1993. (Memoir.)
“Major Mary V. ‘Ginger’ Jacocks.” In Desert Voices: An Oral History Anthology of Marines in the Gulf War, 1990–1991, edited by Paul W. Westermeyer and Alexander N. Hinman, 83–92. Quantico, VA: United States Marine Corps History Division, 2016.
OEF/OIF (and era)
Barber, Lisa. “I Was There.” O-Dark-Thirty (Purple Heart Edition) (2013): n. pag. Print. Essay.
Bhagwati, Anuradha. Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience. Atria, 2020 (reprint edition).
Blair, Jane. Hesitation Kills: A Female Marine’s Combat Experience in Iraq. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print. Memoir: USMC/OIF
Blaise, Kate. The Heart of a Soldier: A True Story of Love, War, and Sacrifice. New York: Gotham Books, 2006.
Bowersox, Sylvia. “This War Can’t Be All Bad.” O-Dark-Thirty 2, no. 4 (Summer 2014): 11–16.
Burton, Clarissa. “In Flight at Five Stories (Part I).” O-Dark-Thirty (Purple Heart Edition) (2013): n. pag. Print. Poem.
Dostie, Ryan Leigh. Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line. Grand Central Publishing, 2019.
Fazio, Teresa. Fidelis: A Memoir. Potomac Books, 2020.
Fazio, Teresa. “So What’s It Like?” The Chariton Review, Vol 37 #2. Also a memoir excerpt, “No One Left Behind,” published by Words After War, and five articles in the New York Times’ At War blog.
Germano, Kate, and Kelly Kennedy: Fight Like a Girl: The Truth Behind How Female Marines Are Trained. Prometheus Books, 2019.
Goodell, Jess, and John Hearn. Shade It Black: Death and After in Iraq. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2013. Print. Memoir: USMC, OIF, Mortuary Affairs.
Halloran, Lauren Kay. “Inheritance of War.” Drunken Boat, (2016).
Hegar, Mary Jennings. Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front. New York: New American Library, 2017.
Hikiji, Miyoko. All I Could Be: My Story as a Woman. Palisades: Chronology, 2013. Print. Memoir: National Guard, OIF
Imsdahl, Lori. “Freak Accidents.” O-Dark-Thirty 3, no. 2 (Winter 2015): 11–26.
Johnson, Shoshana, and M. L. Doyle. I’m Still Standing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Print. Memoir: Army, OIF, POW.
Kennedy, Kelly. They Fought for Each Other: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hardest-Hit Unit in Iraq. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011. Print. Nonfiction, OIF.
King, Brooke. War Flower: My Life After Iraq. Potomac Books, 2019.
Kraft, Heidi Squier. Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital. New York: Little, Brown & Company, 2007. Print. Memoir: Navy, OIF, psychology.
Matti, Amanda. A Foreign Affair: A True Story of Love and War. North Carolina: W&B Publishers, 2016.
Olson, Kim. Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win the Peace. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011. Print. Memoir: USAF, OIF, Iraqi Reconstruction
Polson, Shannon Huffman. North of Hope: A Daughter’s Arctic Journey. Zondervan, 2013. Memoir. Polson has also published material in a number of journals, magazines, and anthologies.
Westley, Laura. War Virgin: My Journey of Repression, Temptation, and Liberation. War Virgin: 2016.
Williams, Kayla, and Michael E. Staub. Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. Print. Memoir: Army, OIF.
Williams, Kayla. Plenty of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2015. Print. Memoir: Army, OIF.
Wilson, Tiffany. “Hello from Afghanistan.” Women Marines Association (blog). Entry posted November 26, 2011. https://womenmarines.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/hello-from-afghanistan/; “Life as a FET 2.” Women Marines Association (blog). Entry posted October 28, 2011. https://womenmarines.wordpress.com/?s=life+as+a+FET&submit=Search; and “Happy Thanksgiving.” Women Marines Association (blog). Entry posted November 26, 2011. https://womenmarines.wordpress.com/?s=happy+thanksgiving&submit=Search
Multiple Wars/Other
Borden, Mary. The Forbidden Zone: A Nurse’s Impressions of the First World War. London: Hesperus Press, 1929, 2008. An American, Borden personally funded, equipped, and staffed a field hospital for the French Army from 1914 to the end of the war.
Bowden, Lisa, and Shannon Cain, eds. Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq. Tuscon: Kore Press, 2008. Print. Essays and poems.
Crow, Tracy, ed. Red, White and True: Stories from Veterans and Families, World War II to Present. Lincoln and London: Board of Regents of the U of Nebraska, 2014. Print. Anthology of essays. The book includes the following essays by women veterans: “Middle Passage, Morning Watch” by Anne Visser Ney (USCG), “War Happens” by Linda Adams, “Breathe through Your Mouth” by Brooke King (USA), and “Sea Mommy” by Libby Oberg (USN).
Crow, Tracy. On Point: A Guide to Writing the Military Story. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2015. Craft of writing guide.
King, Theresa. It Takes 3 Tate Publishing, 2014. (Fiction.) A novel about families, infertility, and egg donation.
Ritchie, Elspeth Cameron, and Anne L. Naclerio. Women at War. Oxford University Press, 2015.
FICTION BY WOMEN VETERANS
Bell, Jerri. “Memorial Day.” Stone Canoe (2014): n. pag. Print. Short fiction, OIF. Also “Her Husband’s Stars,” CONSEQUENCE Magazine (2016); “Care Packages,” r.kv.r.y (2016); and “Duty Rack,” Pleiaides (2016).
Doyle, M. L. (Fiction.) Three series: a contemporary mystery/thriller series (the Master Sergeant Harper series) features a strong-willed female master sergeant. The first book of her new “Desert Goddess” urban fantasy series, about a former woman soldier possessed by a Sumerian goddess, is forthcoming in November 2015. Her “Limited Partnerships” adult romance series was published under the pen name Louise Kokesh. Visit her Amazon author page here.
Fazio, Teresa. “Little.” In The Road Ahead: Stories of the Forever War (Adrian Bonenberger and Brian Castner, eds.) New York: Pegasus Books, 2016.
Greene, Carver. An Unlawful Order (The Chase Anderson Series Book 1). Lulu, 2011. Fiction/thriller; OEF/OIF.
Halloran, Lauren. “Operation Slut.” In The Road Ahead: Stories of the Forever War (Adrian Bonenberger and Brian Castner, eds.) New York: Pegasus Books, 2016.
Jabs, Kathleen Toomey. Black Wings. Fuze Publishing, LLC, 2011. Mystery. Jabs has also published in a number of literary journals.
Kalinowski, Mariette. “The Train.” Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War. Ed. Matt Gallagher and Roy Scranton. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2013. N. pag. Print. OEF/OIF.
Martin, Molly. “Hate Me.” O-Dark-Thirty 2.1 (2013): n. pag. Print. Short story, OIF/OEF.
O’Neill, Susan. Don’t Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam. Serving House Press, 2001. Short fiction collection by a former Army nurse.
Polson, Shannon Huffman. “Brown Bird.” In The Road Ahead: Stories of the Forever War (Adrian Bonenberger and Brian Castner, eds.) New York: Pegasus Books, 2016.
Rouse, Kristen. “Pawns.” In The Road Ahead: Stories of the Forever War (Adrian Bonenberger and Brian Castner, eds.) New York: Pegasus Books, 2016.
Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann. The Healer’s War. Open Road Media Science & Fantasy, 2014. Fiction/fantasy, set in Vietnam. Scarborough has written more than thirty books, sixteen in collaboration with fantasy author Anne McCaffrey.
Scott, Jessica. Fiction: three contemporary romance series, featuring both male and female soldiers: “Homefront,” “Falling,” and “Coming Home” – eleven novels to date. Read my review or visit her Amazon author page.
Settle, Mary Lee. Blood Tie. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995 (Reprint Edition). (Fiction.) Settle, an American who served in the RAF WAAF during World War Two, won the National Book Award for Blood Tie in 1978. Settle wrote twenty-three books, including the “Beulah Quintet” historical series.
Williams, Kayla. “There’s Always One.” In The Road Ahead: Stories of the Forever War (Adrian Bonenberger and Brian Castner, eds.) New York: Pegasus Books, 2016.
Wilmot, Michelle. Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism. N.p.: CreateSpace, 2013. Print. Fiction: Army, OIF.
Wilson, Anne A. Clear to Lift. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, N.d.
Wilson, Anne A. Hover. Tom Doherty Associates, N.d.
POETRY BY WOMEN VETERANS
Hudson, Vicki. “When Jenny Comes Marching Home Again.” O-Dark-Thirty (Purple Heart Edition) (2013): n. pag. Print. Poem. More of Hudson’s work can be found through her web site.
Poppe, Tessa. “The Grass.” O-Dark-Thirty 2.2 (2014): n. pag. Print. Poem.
Rivera, Maritza. “Walking Wounded.” O-Dark-Thirty 1.2 (2013): n. pag. Print. Poem.
Weaver, Anna. “Morning Formation after Fight-or-Fuck Night.” O-Dark-Thirty 2.2 (2014): n. pag. Print. Poem.
ALSO OF INTEREST: NONFICTION AND FICTION ABOUT MILITARY WOMEN, BY OTHERS
Bellafaire, Judith. Women in the United States Military: An Annotated Bibliography. Routledge, 2011.
Benedict, Helen. The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq. Beacon Press, 2010. Nonfiction.
Benedict, Helen. Sand Queen. Soho Press, 2012. Fiction.
Benedict, Helen. Wolf Season. Bellevue Literary Press, 2017. Fiction.
Biank, Tania. Undaunted: The Real Story of America’s Servicewomen in Today’s Military. Dutton Caliber, 2014.
Binker, Mary Jo. Her Story: An Oral History Handbook for Collecting Military Women’s Stories. Washington DC: Military Women’s Press, 2002.
Blanton, DeAnne, and Lauren Cook Wise. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. N.p.: Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
DePauw, Linda Grant. Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from PreHistory to the Present. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1998.
DePauw, Linda Grant. “Women in Combat: The Revolutionary War Experience.” Armed Forces and Society 7 (1981): 209–26. http://afs.sagepub.com.
Frank, Lisa Tendrich, ed. An Encyclopedia of American Women at War from the Home Front to the Battlefields. 2 vols. Santa Barbara: abc-clio, 2013.
Goodman, Robin Truth. Gender for the Warfare State: Literature of Women in Combat. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Graf, Mercedes H. “Women Nurses in the Spanish-American War.” Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women in the Military, 3–38. Accessed April 26, 2016.
Harris, Sharon M. Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical, 1832–1919. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009.
Holmstedt, Kirsten. Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq. Stackpole Books, 2008.
LaMotte, Ellen Newbold. The Backwash of War: The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse. Read Books Ltd., 1916, 2013.
Lemmon, Gayle Tzemach. Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield. New York: Harper Collins, 2015.
McIntosh, Elizabeth P. Sisterhood of Spies: Women of the OSS. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1998.
Miles, Rosalind, and Robin Cross. Hell Hath No Fury: True Stories of Women at War from Antiquity to Iraq. New York: Three Rivers, 2008.
Norman, Elizabeth M. We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Women Trapped on Bataan. New York: Random House Trade Paperback, 2013.
North, Louise V., Janet M. Wedge, and Landa M. Freeman. In the Words of Women: The Revolutionary War and the Birth of the Nation, 1765–1799. Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2011.
Sherman, Janann. No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
Thorpe, Helen. Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War. New York: Scribner, 2014.
Van Reet, Brian. Spoils. Lee Boudreaux Books, 2017.
Young, Alfred F. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. New York: Random House, 2004.
FOREIGN MILITARY WOMEN
Alexievich, Svetlana. The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II (tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky). New York: Random House, 2017. Russia, Nonfiction, WWII. Alexievich is a Nobel Prize-winning journalist who lives in Belarus.
Brittain, Vera. Testament of Youth. New York: Penguin, 2005. Print. British, Nonfiction, WWI. Originally published in 1933.
Duong, Thu Huong. Novel Without a Name (trans. Phan Huy Duong and Nina McPherson). New York: Penguin, 1995. Vietnam, Fiction, Vietnam War. At the age of twenty, Duong led a Communist Youth Brigade sent to the front and was one of three survivors of a group of forty. During China’s 1979 attack on Vietnam, she became the first woman combatant present on the front lines to chronicle the conflict. She was expelled from the Communist Party in 1989 for her advocacy for political reform and human rights, and was imprisoned without trial for seven months in 1991 for her political beliefs. She lives in Hanoi.
Noggle, Anne. A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994. Russia, Nonfiction, WWII. Noggle, a former WASP, retired from the Air Force as a captain.
Smith, Helen Zenna. Not So Quiet. New York: The Feminist Press, 1930, 1989. UK, Fiction, WWI.
Presumption and Folly 