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Brian Castner

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Brian Castner
BornBrian Patrick Castner
1977 (age 46–47)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
OccupationOfficer
Writer
Journalist
LanguageEnglish
Alma materMarquette University
Oklahoma State University
Genrenon-fiction
Years active2012–present
Notable worksThe Long Walk
Stampede
Website
briancastner.com

Brian Patrick Castner (born 1977) is an American author, journalist, former explosive ordnance disposal officer and veteran of the Iraq War.[1] He has authored four books and his writings have been published in The New York Times, Esquire and Wired. Castner is also a Senior Crisis Advisor with Amnesty International's Crisis Response Programme.[2]

Early life

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Castner was born in 1977, in Buffalo, New York. He attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in 1999. Castner cites his Jesuit education as a major influence in his works.[3] After graduating, Castner joined the U.S. Air Force as a civil engineering officer. Later, he received a master's degree in Fire and Emergency Management from Oklahoma State University.[4]

Career

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Military career

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Castner graduated Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in 2003. He served multiple tours of duty in the Middle East and Southwest Asia including Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He led bomb disposal companies in Balad Air Base, Iraq in 2005 and Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq in 2006. His last assignment was Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. Castner left the military service in 2007.[5]

Writing career

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Castner's first book The Long Walk was published in 2012 by Doubleday. The book was reviewed by multiple news websites including by Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times, and The New Yorker.[6][7] Apart from that, The Long Walk was also a NYTBR Editor's Choice and was named an Amazon's Best Books of the Year. Castner was a featured writer at the Miami Book Fair in 2012, on a panel with Jake Tapper and Benjamin Busch.[8]

The American Lyric Theater commissioned an opera adaption of The Long Walk which premiered at Opera Saratoga in 2015. Jeremy Howard Beck composed the music and Daniel Belcher sang the role of Castner. The opera received positive reviews from The New York Times Magazine.[9] The opera was also performed at the Utah Opera in 2017 and the Pittsburgh Opera in 2018.[10][11]

In 2016, Castner's second book, All the Ways We Kill and Die, was published by Arcade Publishing. Lawrence Freedman, in his book The Future of War, called it "one of the best books of the genre," and Kirkus Reviews described Castner's writing to be evocative and engaging.[12][13] Passages North called it "the best book about America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last fifteen years."[14]

In 2018, Doubleday published Castner's third book, Disappointment River. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rinker Buck said Brian Castner's "Disappointment River", a mixed history and travel memoir, goes a long way toward correcting the record of discovery in North America.[15] Castner's fourth book, Stampede was published in 2021. The book is about the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.[16] Stampede received positive reviews from several book review websites including Kirkus Reviews and The Wall Street Journal.[17][18]

Castner has twice received grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.[19] He was also the writer-in-residence at the Chautauqua Institution in 2014. Castner's 2016 story for Adirondack Life, "Three Days in the Santanonis", won a Gold IRMA Award.[20] He was featured on the PBS documentary Going to War which was nominated for an Emmy in 2019.[21]

Amnesty International

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In 2018, Castner joined Amnesty International’s International Secretariat as a Senior Crisis Advisor with the Crisis Response Programme. He has conducted weapons investigations in Ukraine, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan and the United States.[22][23] In August 2021, while conducting war crimes investigations in Afghanistan, he was part of the emergency evacuation from Kabul.[24]

Bibliography

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Title Year Publisher
The Long Walk 2012 Doubleday[25]
All the Ways We Kill and Die 2016 Arcade Publishing
The Road Ahead (edited with Adrian Bonenberger) 2017 Pegasus Publications
Disappointment River 2018 Doubleday
Stampede 2021 Doubleday

References

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  1. ^ Gross, Terry (8 July 2012). "'The Life That Follows' Disarming IEDs In Iraq". NPR. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  2. ^ Biajo, Nabeel (30 November 2021). "Amnesty International Urges UN to Renew South Sudan Arms Embargo". VoA News. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  3. ^ Higgins, Jim (12 July 2012). "Marquette grad shares stories of war, personal aftermath in 'The Long Walk'". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Marquette Magazine Winter 2013". Marquette University. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  5. ^ "My Turn: Moving Back East; Heading Back Home". Newsweek. 25 March 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  6. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (26 December 2014). "Human Costs of the Forever Wars, Enough to Fill a Bookshelf". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  7. ^ Fox, Chloe (12 July 2012). "Soldiers, Husbands, and Coming Home: "The Long Walk"". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  8. ^ Sentenac, Hannah (22 September 2012). "Miami Book Fair International Announces Full 2012 Lineup: Bill O'Reilly, Molly Ringwald, James Patterson and More". Miami New Times. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  9. ^ Chivers, C. J. (10 July 2015). "An Iraq Veteran's Homecoming, With Arias". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  10. ^ Newton, Catherine Reese (3 April 2017). "Utah Opera braves front line". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  11. ^ O'Driscoll, Bill (17 January 2018). ""War and its aftermath" in Pittsburgh Opera's A Long Walk". Pittsburgh City Paper. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  12. ^ Freedman, Lawrence (5 March 2019). The Future of War by Lawrence Freedman | PublicAffairs. ISBN 9781541742772. Retrieved 2022-09-05.
  13. ^ "A must-read for military buffs and a should-read for anyone who has given even a cursory thought to the U.S. efforts in..." Kirkus Reviews. 20 December 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  14. ^ Jennings, Brandon Davis (6 September 2016). "Hunting with Brian Castner: A review of All the Ways We Kill and Die". Passages North. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  15. ^ Buck, Rinker (9 March 2018). "Venturing Into the Great Northwest". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  16. ^ National Geographic Staff (6 April 2021). "These are the worst trips in the world". National Geographic. Archived from the original on April 6, 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  17. ^ Graybill, Andrew R. (5 April 2021). "'Stampede' Review: An Attack of 'Klondicitis'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  18. ^ "A vigorous historical page-turner packed with a cast of decidedly colorful (and off-color) actors". Kirkus Reviews. 23 January 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  19. ^ Staff Reporter (11 January 2015). "Allegheny professor chronicles Ebola fight". Erie Times-News. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  20. ^ "Travel Feature – Gold – Adirondack Life, "Three Days in the Santanonis" by Brian Castner". International Regional Magazine Association. 15 December 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  21. ^ THR Staff (24 September 2019). "News & Documentary Emmys: 2019 Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  22. ^ "Senior Crisis Advisor with the Crisis Response Programme, and the weapons investigator for the Evidence Lab". Citizen Evidence. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  23. ^ "Brian Castner Senior Crisis Advisor, Amnesty International". Forum on the Arms Trade. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  24. ^ Pollak, Sorcha. "Taliban may be carrying out massacres with impunity – Amnesty International". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  25. ^ D. Samet, Elizabeth (19 August 2012). "'The Long Walk,' by Brian Castner". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
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