(Winston-Salem, NC: Mastodon Publishing, 2018)

Katie Rogin is an award-winning writer with a diverse oeuvre. She has written for both television and film, including ABC’s One Life to Live, and a short film In A Blue Mood, which she also produced and directed. Rogin’s essays, fiction and criticism can be seen in publications including Vice’s Tonic, The Rumpus, Sports Illustrated, and The Chattahoochee Review. Now, she has added “novelist” to her résumé. 

Rogin’s debut novel, Life During Wartime, is a complex examination of the results of trauma, both mental and physical. The novel takes place in California in 2008. September 11 is still painfully fresh, U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economy is teetering on the edge of financial crisis. The book considers wartime and its ramifications both literally and figuratively, and it shows how those involved in waging a literal war can be affected. Rogin’s characters are tough, and they show how surviving after trauma can be an act of courage or even sacrifice.

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