We are pleased to announce another Civilian-Military Collaborative Talk for 2021! It will take place on Tuesday the 27th of April from 1700-1800 EST on zoom. Will Mackin, a Grayson Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, will be giving a talk on his 23 years in the Navy and his work as writer detailing his experiences in his upcoming short story series. Please see his bio below for more information! In addition, please click on the links here to see a wonderful article posted in The Harvard Gazette about his latest short story collection and his website with access to his other work.
Will Mackin was born in 1968, in Troy, New York. He spent his formative years in Marmora, New Jersey. He worked summers as a valet at a casino in Atlantic City, where he once received a $100 tip after returning Julius Erving’s Bentley unscathed. Mackin left New Jersey to study at the University of Colorado on an R.O.T.C. scholarship. After graduating with a B.A. in English, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. His first assignment was to flight school in Pensacola, Florida, for training as a pilot. Mackin went on to fly the EA-6B Prowler in combat operations over Iraq, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. He spent non-operational tours as an Olmsted Scholar--the military’s equivalent of a Rhodes Scholar--in Lyon, France; and as a speechwriter for the Navy’s second highest-ranking Admiral at the Pentagon. The highlight of Mackin’s military career, however, were the six years he served at Naval Special Warfare Development Group in Dam Neck, Virginia. There, he became a Joint Terminal Attack Controller, whose job it is to call in airstrikes on enemy targets. In that capacity, Mackin frequently deployed as part of a special operations team to conduct top-secret combat missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and elsewhere. Those experiences inform his writing, which has appeared in the New Yorker, Tin House, and The New York Times Magazine. His story “Kattekoppen” was selected by Jennifer Egan for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 2014. His essay in GQ, about being an extra on Breaking Bad, was nominated for an American Society of Magazine Editors “Ellie” award. Mackin’s debut collection of short stories, Bring Out the Dog, won the PEN/Bingham award in 2019. Having retired from the Navy after 23 years, Mackin now lives in New Mexico with his wife and two kids.
Although the talk is generally geared towards folks who are heading into the military upon graduation and our veteran community, we welcome any other people that you think might be interested. So please feel free to pass the information along to them. Additionally, if you know of any other folks that might not be included on the HMS/HSDM Veteran Mailing list, let us know so we can invite them.