David J. Morris (writer)

Morris graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in history in 1994. He served as a rifle platoon commander in the Third Battalion, Fifth Marines from 1994 to 1998. His first book, Storm on the Horizon, an account of the Gulf War battle of Khafji was published by Simon & Schuster in 2004 and subsequently adapted for television by The History Channel.{{Citation|title = Storm on the Horizon|url = https://vimeo.com/4732783|accessdate = 2015-09-26}} Shortly after his first book came out, Morris began working as a war correspondent in Iraq, covering the first battle of Fallujah and the Anbar Awakening for Salon and the Virginia Quarterly Review.{{Cite web|title = Turning point|url = http://www.salon.com/2004/09/16/fallujah_4/|accessdate = 2015-09-26|first = David J.|last = Morris| date=17 September 2004 }}

His story “The Big Suck: Notes from the Jarhead Underground” was originally published in VQR and was included in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007.{{cite web|last1=MorrisDavid|first1=David J.|title=The Big Suck: Notes from the Jarhead Underground|url=http://www.vqronline.org/dispatch/big-suck-notes-jarhead-underground|website=VQR Online|accessdate=12 October 2015}} His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Slate, The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Times and The Surfer's Journal.{{Cite magazine|title = How Much Does Culture Matter for P.T.S.D.?|url = http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-much-does-culture-matter-for-p-t-s-d|magazine = The New Yorker| date=16 July 2013 |accessdate = 2015-09-26 | last1=Morris | first1=David J. }}{{Cite web|title = After PTSD, More Trauma|url = http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/after-ptsd-more-trauma/|accessdate = 2015-09-26|first = David J.|last = Morris| date=17 January 2015 }}{{Cite news|title = Trauma Post Trauma|url = http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/07/prolonged_exposure_therapy_for_ptsd_the_va_s_treatment_has_dangerous_side.html|newspaper = Slate|date = 2015-07-21|access-date = 2015-09-26|issn = 1091-2339|language = en|first = David J.|last = Morris}}{{Cite web|title = Surviving War Doesn't Turn All Veterans into Victims, Sometimes it Helps Them Grow|url = http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/18/surviving-war-doesn-t-turn-all-veterans-into-victims-sometimes-it-helps-them-grow.html|website = The Daily Beast|date = 2014-05-18|accessdate = 2015-09-26|first = David|last = Morris}}

His 2015 book The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder describes his experiences as a reporter in Iraq and his subsequent struggles with post-traumatic stress. The book also examines the personal, cultural and scientific aspects of PTSD.{{Cite news|title = 'The Evil Hours,' by David J. Morris|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/books/review/the-evil-hours-by-david-j-morris.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2015-02-20|access-date = 2015-09-26|issn = 0362-4331|first = Jen|last = Percy}}{{Cite news|title = The Moral Injury|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/opinion/david-brooks-the-moral-injury.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2015-02-17|access-date = 2015-09-26|issn = 0362-4331|first = David|last = Brooks}}{{Cite news|title = V.A.'s Treatment of Veterans' Trauma|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/opinion/vas-treatment-of-veterans-trauma.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2015-01-23|access-date = 2015-09-26|issn = 0362-4331}} The Times Literary Supplement said the book, "Conveys the mysteries of trauma in a way that is unsurpassed in the literature," adding that it is "the most important book published on the subject in this century."{{Cite web|url = http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/multimedia/archive/01163/contents__2__1163220a.pdf|title = Times Literary Supplement|date = |accessdate = |website = |publisher = |last = |first = }}{{Cite web|title = In 'The Evil Hours,' A Journalist Shares His Struggle With PTSD|url = https://www.npr.org/2015/01/20/378586235/in-the-evil-hours-a-journalist-shares-his-struggle-with-ptsd|website = NPR.org|accessdate = 2015-09-26|first = Fresh|last = Air}} David Brooks, the New York Times columnist wrote that The Evil Hours "reminded me why I wanted to be a writer in the first place. It communicates the realities of PTSD, both to those who live with it and those who never have."{{Cite web|title = David Brooks: By the Book|url = https://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2015/02/23/david-brooks-by-the-book/|website = The New York Times|date = 2015-02-23|accessdate = 2015-10-23|first = Pamela|last = Paul}} The book was also a New York Times "Editors' Choice" and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.{{Cite news|title = Editors' Choice|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/books/review/editors-choice.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2015-02-27|access-date = 2015-10-23|issn = 0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title = Los Angeles Times {{!}} Festival of Books|url = http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/book-prizes/|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131204003745/http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/book-prizes/|url-status = dead|archive-date = 2013-12-04|website = Festival of Books|access-date = 2016-02-24}}

Morris is originally from San Diego, California. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of California, Irvine as well as an M.A. in British Literature from San Diego State University. In 2008, he was awarded a creative nonfiction fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as residencies at The MacDowell Colony and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 2009 he won the Staige D. Blackford Award for nonfiction writing from the Virginia Quarterly Review. He has taught writing at the University of California, Riverside and at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Ripton, Vermont.{{Cite web|title = Tales from the Front|url = http://news.uci.edu/feature/tales-from-the-front/|website = news.uci.edu|accessdate = 2015-09-26}} Morris is currently a professor in the Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. [https://www.unlv.edu/people/david-morris]

• Morris, David J. Storm on the Horizon: Khafji--The Battle that Changed the Course of the Gulf War. Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|0743235576}}
• Morris, David J. The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. {{ISBN|0544086619}}

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Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows

Category:Texas A&M University alumni

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people