The People Beside the Book
No book is made by one pair of hands. Although The Tug of War carries my name, many people helped bring it across the distance between memory and the printed page. They listened, questioned, edited, imagined, recorded, and sometimes steadied the rope when I was too close to the struggle to see it clearly.
These are some of the people whose gifts live inside the book, along with friends and fellow travelers whose work continues the larger conversation about war, moral injury, storytelling, healing, and our responsibility to one another.
Those Who Helped Make the Book
Andy Paris and Voiceworks
Andy and the Voiceworks team are overseeing the audiobook’s production, editing, quality control, mastering, and distribution. They are building the bridge between the recorded voice and the finished audiobook.
Audiobook ProductionKoehler Books
The editors, designers, and production staff at Koehler Books helped turn the manuscript, poetry, and images into the finished book that readers will hold in their hands.
PublisherMichael Gold
Michael worked beside me to create the images that accompany the chapters of The Tug of War. He did more than illustrate the words. He helped the memories step out of the shadows and become visible.
Artist and PhotographerDavid Tabatsky
David helped me shape the manuscript without sanding away my voice. His questions, judgment, and care strengthened the road the reader will travel.
Editor and WriterAudiobook Narrator
George Guidall
George is bringing his remarkable voice and long experience as a storyteller to the audiobook. Hearing him read these words gives the book another body and another way to enter the listener.
Recording EngineerRich Samalin
Rich helped bring George and me together and is guiding the recording process. His careful ear will help carry the spoken book from the room where it is recorded into the ears of the listener.
Friends and Fellow Travelers
Joseph Jastrab
Joseph’s writing and teaching explore the ways nature can guide us toward a more soulful relationship with ourselves and the world. He also offered a generous and deeply felt response to The Tug of War.
Author, Guide, and TeacherMarty Klein
Marty uses film and conversation to bring veterans and civilians into the same room. His work shares my belief that healing begins when silence is broken and people are willing to listen to one another. Click here to watch his film “Why Can’t We Serve”
Filmmaker and Veteran AdvocateAttorney, Writer, and Veterans Advocate
Benjamin Pomerance
Benjamin’s work examines the responsibilities we carry toward veterans and toward one another. Our conversations belong to the larger moral landscape surrounding this book.
Ask a VetErin and Greg
Through Ask a Vet, Erin and Greg create room for veterans to tell their stories in their own words. Their willingness to listen helps narrow the distance between military experience and civilian understanding.
A book may have one name on its cover, but it never arrives alone
The Tug of War took most of my lifetime to reach the printed page. It began long before I knew I was writing a book—in Vietnam, in the years of coming home, in my work with veterans, in poems scribbled when prose could not carry what I was trying to say, and in the long struggle to find language for what we now call moral injury.
Along that road, people helped me carry what was sometimes too heavy to carry alone.
Two of those people, David Tabatsky and Nancy Rosenfeld, should have been named in the acknowledgments of the book. Through an oversight, they were not. I cannot change the page already printed, but I can change the silence.
David served as my editor and helped me look again at words I had lived with for years. An editor sometimes stands in the peculiar position of holding a lantern while the writer goes back into rooms he would rather leave dark. David did that with care, patience, and respect for my voice.
Nancy, my agent, also became part of the long journey that helped this manuscript find its way toward the world. Her encouragement, guidance, and belief in the work mattered to me.
So I want their names here. Not as an erratum. Not as an asterisk. But as part of the story of how this book came into being.
At seventy-eight, I have learned that memory is an imperfect quartermaster. Occasionally something important gets left off the truck.
David and Nancy, I am sorry your names were left from the printed acknowledgments. You belonged there. And you belong here.
With my gratitude,
Larry Winters
My deep appreciation to Macy, whose skill, patience, and careful attention helped carry The Tug of War across the final bridge from manuscript to book.
Her name was unintentionally omitted from the acknowledgements in the first printing—a mistake that was mine, not a measure of her contribution. I am grateful for her work and honored to acknowledge it here.
Making Contact
To protect the privacy of the friends and collaborators named here, I have not included their personal contact information. If someone’s work speaks to you and you would like to reach them, please contact me. When appropriate, I will be glad to pass your message along or help make an introduction.