Middle West Press Editors Interviewed on ‘At Ease’ Podcast

A recently released episode of Museum of the American Military Family Museum & Learning Center’s At Ease podcast features interviews with Middle West Press editors Randy Brown and Lisa Stice. Museum founder and Executive Director Circe Olson Woessner hosted the 73-minute interview, which is available via the Podbean mobile app network or web-browser FREE here at this link.

The three discussed their respective personal histories with the military, and how those experiences shape their actions both as poets, and as editors and publishers of poetry.

Located east of Albuquerque in Tijeras, New Mexico, the museum’s mission is “to bring together people with shared experiences showcasing and honoring those who also served—America’s Military Families.” 

In keeping with that mission, the museum’s MAMF Media project “presents video and audio podcasts and shares the stories, memories, news and culture of the men, women and children who serve alongside America's service members.”

The museum also regularly publishes anthologies of military-writing pertaining to the experiences of military families, including titles such as Host-Nation Hospitality, Schooling with Uncle Sam, and On Freedom’s Frontier: Life on the Fulda Gap.

Brown, in addition to being the author of the award-winning Welcome to FOB Haiku and other poetry collections, serves as the poetry editor for the national non-profit Military Experience and the Arts, and as the administrator of The Aiming Circle community of practice of military writers. He is also currently on the board of the Military Writers Guild. He is a retired 20-year veteran of the Iowa Army National Guard with one overseas deployment, and grew up in an active-duty U.S. Air Force family.

During the interview, Brown reads from his essay “Battle-Sight Zero,” and his poem “Airman, Second Grade.”

Stice, in addition to being the author of award-winning Permanent Change of Station and other poetry collections, is an editor at Inklette Magazine and a writer for the Military Spouse Fine Artists Network (Milspo-FAN). She received a BA in English literature from Mesa State College (now Colorado Mesa University) and an MFA in creative writing and literary arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She currently lives in North Carolina with her U.S. Marine husband and daughter, and a Norwich Terrier named Seamus.

During the interview, Stice reads her poems “The Night Before Deployment” from her 2016 collection Uniform, and “Headstrong” from her 2021 collection FORCES.

The podcast interview is available FREE for download or streaming here: militaryfamilymuseum.podbean.com/e/at-ease-lisa-stice-randy-brown/

The museum’s website is here: militaryfamilymuseum.org

A Facebook page for the museum is here: www.facebook.com/MuseumoftheAmericanMilitaryFamily