Description: Phil Klay, writer and Iraq War combat veteran, received the National Book Award for his 2014 short story collection, Redeployment, inspired by his own military service. Klay spent 13 months in Iraq’s Anbar Province during the U.S. troop surge (2007-8). His first novel, Missionaries explores America’s involvement in Colombia’s civil wars to tell a tale of drug cartels, state militias, and U.S. advisors who acquired their skills and training amid the carnage of America’s wars in the Middle East.