How to Revise a True War Story: Tim O’Brien’s Process of Textual Production

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By John K. Young ’90

Published May 31, 2017

Drawing on an extensive study of drafts and other prepublication materials, as well as the multiple published versions of Tim O’Brien’s works, John K. Young ’90 tells the stories behind the production of some of O’Brien’s most famous texts. How to Revise a True War Story (University of Iowa Press) analyzes how O’Brien’s series of texts refuse to settle into a finished or stable form, just as the stories they present insist on being told and retold in new and changing ways.

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PAW's July/August 2025 issue cover, featuring a photo of people dressed in orange and black, marching in the P-rade, and the headline: Reunions, Back in Orange & Black.
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On the cover: Wilton Virgo ’00 and his classmates celebrate during the P-rade.