Helen Thorpe: Soldier Girls

“Soldier Girls” – named the number one non-fiction book of 2014 by TIME Magazine – is the compelling story of three women who signed up for the Army National Guard before 9/11, envisioning a part-time commitment, only to wind up serving year-long deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this evening’s presentation, author Helen Thorpe will both describe the book project, as well as explore the life of the three women through photographs of their time in those foreign countries and some of the documents they shared while working on the book, such as their diaries, letters, and medical records. Helen will describe the narrative arc of the book, read from selected passages and discuss the three women and their struggles in a personal way — why they enlisted, how they felt about their deployment orders, and how they survived two deployments and the difficulties of two transitions back home. Helen Thorpe is a journalist who writes about social issues in a personal way. Her first book, “Just Like Us,” focused on the plight of immigrant children who were brought to the U.S. at a young age by their parents, sometimes without legal status, and their struggle to find their place in America. “Just Like Us” was the recipient of the 2009 Colorado Book Award for Creative Non-fiction and was also named one of 2009’s best books by the Washington Post.