Who is “Charlie Sherpa”?
SHORT (75-WORD) BIOGRAPHY / INTRODUCTION
Randy “Sherpa” Brown embedded with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit as a civilian journalist in Afghanistan, May-June 2011. The editor of numerous anthologies, he has also authored the poetry collection "Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire" (2015), and “Twelve O’Clock Haiku: Leadership Lessons from Old War Movies & New Poems” (2023). His essays, journalism, and poetry have appeared widely both on-line and in print.
Note to broadcasters: Acronym “FOB” is pronounced "fawb"; rhymes with "Bob."
LONGER (300-WORD) BIOGRAPHY / INTRODUCTION
In 2010, Randy “Sherpa” Brown was preparing for deployment to Eastern Afghanistan as a member of the Iowa Army National Guard’s
2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division. Since its organization in 1917, the division has historically comprised citizen-soldiers from Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, and other Midwestern states. In news reports, the 2010 deployment of more than 3,000 was billed as the largest activation of Iowa troops since World War II.
After a paperwork SNAFU dropped Brown from the list, he retired with 20 years of military service and a previous overseas deployment. He then went to Afghanistan anyway, embedding with Iowa’s Red Bull units as a civilian journalist and blogger in May-June 2011. A former editor of community and metro newspapers, as well as national trade and consumer magazines, he is now a freelance editor and writer based in Central Iowa.
Brown is the author of the award-winning poetry collection “Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire” (2015), and the editor of the non-fiction title “Reporting for Duty: U.S. Citizen-Soldier Journalism from the Afghan Surge, 2010-2011” (2016). He is also co-editor of “Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War” (2019) and “Things We Carry Still: Poems & Micro-Stories about Military Gear” (2023).
Brown was the 2015 winner of the inaugural Madigan Award for humorous military-themed writing, presented by Negative Capability Press, Mobile, Ala. He was the 2012 winner of the Military Reporters and Editors’ (M.R.E.) independent-blogging category, and his “Red Bull Rising” blog was a finalist in the Milblogging.com awards’ veteran (2011) and reporter (2012) categories.
He is the current poetry editor at the literary journal As You Were, published twice a year by the non-profit Military Experience & the Arts. He is a member of the Military Writers Guild, the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), the 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division Association, and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA).
For a full listing of published credits, awards, and past speaking events, click here.
Randy “Sherpa” Brown embedded with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit as a civilian journalist in Afghanistan, May-June 2011. The editor of numerous anthologies, he has also authored the poetry collection "Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire" (2015), and “Twelve O’Clock Haiku: Leadership Lessons from Old War Movies & New Poems” (2023). His essays, journalism, and poetry have appeared widely both on-line and in print.
Note to broadcasters: Acronym “FOB” is pronounced "fawb"; rhymes with "Bob."
LONGER (300-WORD) BIOGRAPHY / INTRODUCTION
After a paperwork SNAFU dropped Brown from the list, he retired with 20 years of military service and a previous overseas deployment. He then went to Afghanistan anyway, embedding with Iowa’s Red Bull units as a civilian journalist and blogger in May-June 2011. A former editor of community and metro newspapers, as well as national trade and consumer magazines, he is now a freelance editor and writer based in Central Iowa.
Brown is the author of the award-winning poetry collection “Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire” (2015), and the editor of the non-fiction title “Reporting for Duty: U.S. Citizen-Soldier Journalism from the Afghan Surge, 2010-2011” (2016). He is also co-editor of “Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War” (2019) and “Things We Carry Still: Poems & Micro-Stories about Military Gear” (2023).
Brown was the 2015 winner of the inaugural Madigan Award for humorous military-themed writing, presented by Negative Capability Press, Mobile, Ala. He was the 2012 winner of the Military Reporters and Editors’ (M.R.E.) independent-blogging category, and his “Red Bull Rising” blog was a finalist in the Milblogging.com awards’ veteran (2011) and reporter (2012) categories.
He is the current poetry editor at the literary journal As You Were, published twice a year by the non-profit Military Experience & the Arts. He is a member of the Military Writers Guild, the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), the 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division Association, and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA).
For a full listing of published credits, awards, and past speaking events, click here.
For links to Brown’s books and projects, visit: linktr.ee/randysherpabrown
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