Robert Olen Butler on Writing AFG: Tell us how your experiences in the Vietnam War formed your writing? ROB: In 1969, I was caught up in the pre-lottery draft for the Vietnam War and wound up in the Army, first in military intelligence and then in Army language school learning Vietnamese. I studied the language for […]
Category Archives: Blog Article
The Real Sherlock Holmes
The Real Sherlock Holmes On a cold winter’s evening in December 1886, Arthur Foster left the Queen’s Theatre, Manchester, England, with a pocket full of gold and a bejeweled lady on his arm. Stepping carefully through the throngs of hawkers and street sellers, the striking couple hailed a hansom cab. As they settled inside the […]
The Follies of Gods (Excerpt)
The Follies of Gods (Excerpt) “Perhaps you can be of some help to me.”?These were the first words Tennessee Williams spoke to me in that initial phone call to my parents’ home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was September of 1982, a fact I noted in a small blue book. The book was new and […]



