Savage Wonder

My guest this week was Stephan Wolfert. Stephan left a career in the military for a life in the theatre after seeing Shakespeare’s Richard III . Stephan Received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. On Broadway, Stephan created and directed the military segments for Twyla Tharp & Billy Joel’s Tony-Award winning production Movin’ Out an...

My guest this week was Elize McKelvey . Introvert. Art school graduate. Marine (makes Staff Sergeant in 6 years). Combat artist. Elize McKelvey managed to excel as a truly "martial artist" - capturing the stories of Marines as rendered by a Marine. There may be other introverts who became wildly successful freelance artists, but few, if any, did it through the Marine Corps. She and I chase shiny o...

Scott Mann is a professional storyteller. His play Last Out is a full-spectrum treatment of our war in Afghanistan. It is not an anti-war play. It is not a pro-war play. It is simply a play about war and all its complications - the toll it takes on the warfighter; the way it impacts the warfighter’s family - both positively and negatively; the intersection of cultures in this particular war; findi...

Savage Wonder episode 21 with guest Shairi Engle . Our first veteran playwright - finally! There are a few reasons it took us a while to finally book a veteran playwright. The biggest reason is that I didn't want to book someone whose play was under consideration in our playwrighting competitions. Fortunately for this episode, Shairi has been too busy with residencies and work to submit any work,...

Savage Wonder, episode 20 with Keith Walter Dow . Probably no segment of western society over the past 10 years has seen a bigger spike in creative writing as the veteran community. So it makes sense that an entity like Dead Reckoning Collective exists to capture and publicize so much of that writing. But that spike is also a byproduct of folks like DRC bringing so much literary education to the v...

It's not every 30-year veteran that will leave the military as an equally pedigreed poet. But, with an MFA degree, multiple professorships under his belt and a Pushcart Prize-nominated debut book, that is just what Anthony Thomas is. Articulate, erudite and thoughtful, Anthony and I nerd out on the various forms of poetry, analyze the intersection of sobriety and art, and dive into what brought hi...

Savage Wonder episode 19 with guest Brad Thomas. Army Ranger, veteran of the Battle of Mogadishu, Delta Force operator…guitarist and composer for metal band Silence & Light. There are a lot of reasons I couldn't wait to sit down and talk with Brad. For one thing, he embodies the warrior-artist characteristics we like to celebrate here. I've listened to Silence & Light's debut album a lot....

Amy's debut book, Poppies , covers a lot of ground - West Point, motherhood, war, loss, toxic relationships, femininity, and all the places she's peed...the list goes on. I could say Amy's work is unpretentious and brilliantly executed with real insight into so many personal moments and structured in enough of a chronological narrative to make it a page-turner. But what really struck me about her...

From his bodybuilding ambitions in South Africa to writing poetry in his native Afrikaans while deployed to Helmand Province, Neville Johnson has lived enough to fuel his writing for as long as he wants. Still so early in his writing career, he has attracted a lot of attention in veteran poet community for his moving descriptions and honest memories. Our first Five Eyes veteran on the podcast, Nev...

Savage Wonder, Episode 15 with artist Sarah Rossetti, or, as she is known on Instagram @_invadergirl_ . Sarah finds a way to create mythic canvases that capture the nobility and struggle of military and first responder lives without becoming propagandistic or shallow. A former Air Force brat she comes to her admiration of the military and first responder community honestly. Her decade tending bar...

Lani Hankins served for six years in the US Army, during which time she did one deployment to Afghanistan as a member of a female engagement team. A lot of veterans have experienced a significant amount of trauma that cannot help but infuse their art. That is certainly the case with Lani, but this episode felt a bit different. For one thing, Lani is an artist in many media – publishing books, poet...

Savage Wonder, episode 13 with guest William "Buck" Bolyard. Had a great time getting to know Buck. From his early days in juvie to his time as an Army infantryman to his lonely New Year's Eve in Guatemala with a missing toenail, Buck has always been a writer and a wanderer. His life has become a seething cauldron of experiences from which he draws inspiration. He is resentful of poetry’s consiste...

s.p. burke has been one of the most prolific poets featured on the Savage Wonder literary blog - and for good reason. He has only just begun to deconstruct and unpack the significant emotional events of a 20-year Army career. I got the sense, in speaking with him, that his writing is just trying to catch a waterfall in a cup and he will be mining his life experiences for years. I was also struck b...

In a crowded field of veteran poets, Dex stands out. Sure, there are not a lot of former Marine MPs writing poetry, but that’s not what sets her apart. And she doesn’t just stand apart because of her eloquent, poignant writing. I think what makes her exceptional is the diversity of subjects she tackles: motherhood, family history, the expectations of being a wife, the expectations of being a woman...

Sure, he was a Navy SEAL. Yes, he's become an established actor and producer . But most of all, David B. Meadows is an articulate thinker, a trait cultivated after years of introspection and accumulated self-knowledge. What a conversation we had. His operating system - how he has managed to live two very different lives while blending the best of both together and avoiding the negativity - is more...

Luke Ryan was raised in the US, Pakistan and Thailand. He survived a school shooting. He was an Army Ranger. And instead of writing a memoir or three, he opted for post-apocalyptic fiction, authoring The First Marauder . Borrowing from the tradition of Hemingway, Joseph Conrad and George Orwell, Luke has somewhat intentionally sought to build a trove of adventurous life experiences from which he c...

Savage Wonder podcast, Episode 8 - part II of our conversation with Roman Baca. How does a Marine machine gunner transition from Fallujah, Iraq back to being a professional dancer? How does wartime experience in Iraq change Roman's purpose? How does dance help Roman return to Iraq? You don't want to miss this conversation. . .  Exit12 Dance Company Veterans Repertory Theater

USMC machine gunner, veteran of Fallujah, Iraq in 2005...professional dancer. Yeah, you read that right. Roman Baca is neither an ordinary Marine nor an ordinary dancer. What makes a professional dancer want to join the Marine Corps? Does he tell anyone he's a dancer? What does Marine Corps fitness do for his dancing? So many questions and Roman had no shortage of humble, articulate, intelligent a...

Doc Oliver is a Singer-Songwriter based out of the Central Coast of California. He is also a medically retired Navy Corpsman with two deployments to Afghanistan. On August 31, 2021 on the day the US pulled out of Afghanistan, Doc released his first record “Welcome Home” which is an autobiographical record about his life pre-, during, and post- Operation Enduring Freedom. The record was engineered...

Mason Rodrigue is a former USMC machine gunner with multiple overseas deployments. He is currently a professional poet and writer about to finish his first poetry collection.    Show Notes Support Mason Rodrigue here . Follow Mason Rodrigue here . Savage Wonder literary blog Veterans Repertory Theater @veteransrepertorytheater

Nicholas Luchenbill is a photographer who has been featured in Dek Unu Magazine , The Esthetic Apostle , and Fraction Magazine . His photography has been juried at Crossland Gallery, El Paso, Texas, won first place at the New Mexico Veteran’s Art Show, won the Prix de Photographie at Salon International Art Résilience, Saint-Frajou Art Museum, France, and won People's Choice at the International M...

Lilla Faint is the Managing Director of the Veterans Repertory Theater. She served in the Army for a decade, including assignments with the 101st Airborne and JSOC. She is also a military spouse, a mother, and a lifelong, singer, dancer, and musician.  Show Notes Veterans Repertory Theater @veteransrepertorytheater Savage Wonder literary blog

Dr. Donnelly Wilkes, is the author of Code Red Fallujah: A Doctor's Memoir at War . He is board-certified by the American Board of Family Medicine. Dr. Wilkes obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine, and his medical degree from Tulane School of Medicine on a full Navy Scholarship. Following medical school, Dr. Wilkes was commissioned in the U.S. Navy, completed res...

Charlie Faint is an active duty Army intelligence officer, the owner of the Havok Journal, founder of Second Mission Foundation , and board member of the Veterans Repertory Theater . He is currently the Deputy Director of the Modern War Institute at West Point Military Academy. He served seven tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq and over the course of his career was assigned to units including t...

Savage Wonder is a podcast about warriors and artists. It features long-form, one-on-one conversations with people who have a foot in both the world of the artist and the world of the warrior. It is produced by the Veterans Repertory Theater, a creative hub for talented veterans and world-class performers to create compelling live theater and events.   Show Notes Veterans Repertory Theater @vetera...