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 December 2025 cover, with a photo of Michael Park ’98.
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Judge Michael Park ’98; shifts in DEI initiatives; a night at the new art museum.