ASU alum receives recognition for Iraq War poetry

Iraq War veteran and Arizona State University alumnus Hugh Martin was recently lauded as a “nationally recognized poet” by the Akron Beacon Journal. Martin earned a master of fine arts in creative writing from ASU’s Department of English in 2012 and is currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Martin’s poetry collection, “The Stick Soldiers,” published this spring, is a reflection on his time spent in the Ohio National Guard serving in the Middle East. According to the July 16 article, writing poetry helped Martin come to grips with his experiences in the war. “[Poetry] was a way to write about these experiences that were very strange to me.”

Martin continued, “To write a good poem, it has to be very precise. You have to use an economy of language. ...You have to look at the humanity of everyone – American, Iraqi, civilians.”

Several photos of Martin at home in Ohio and from his time in Iraq accompany the article.

The Department of English is an academic unit in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.