Doug Stanton
Doug Stanton is a journalist, lecturer, screenwriter, and author of the New York Times bestsellers In Harm’s Way and Horse Soldiers. His newest book is The Odyssey Of Echo Company. Horse Soldiers is the basis for a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie by the same name, starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, to be released by Warner Bros. in 2018. In Harm’s Way spent more than six months on the New York Times bestseller list and became required reading on the US Navy's recommended list for officers. Horse Soldiers was featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times Book Review.
Stanton has appeared on numerous TV and radio outlets, including NBC’s “Today,” CNN, Imus In The Morning, Discovery, A&E, Fox News, NPR, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and NBC’s Nightly News, and has been covered extensively in prominent publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times. Drawing on his experiences working in the U.S. and overseas, and with contacts in various branches of the U.S. military and government, Stanton lectures nationally to corporate and civic groups, libraries, writing & book clubs, and universities about current events, international affairs, politics, and writing.
Stanton says that he writes and talks about “existential moments when ordinary men and women are forced to adapt and make extraordinary decisions at the least likely moment. That’s when change happens, whether we like it or not.” He has written on travel, sport, entertainment, and history, and his writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside Magazine, Smart, Men’s Journal, the New York Times, TIME, Newsweek, and the Washington Post.
Stanton’s Horse Soldiers was also a best-seller on lists in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly, and IndieBound. Horse Soldiers was named a “Notable Book” by the New York Times, and it was chosen as a “Best Book” by Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com.
Stanton attended Interlochen Arts Academy, Hampshire College, and received an MFA from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he graduated with coursework in both fiction and poetry workshops.
He lives in Michigan with his wife, Anne Stanton, and their three children. Visit www.dougstanton.com and www.nationalwritersseries.org. Follow Doug on Twitter @dougstantonbook and Instagram @dougstantonwriter.
“McCoy, drained and hollow-eyed, couldn't take his eyes off the life vest belonging to the boy who'd slipped away from the group during the night. The empty vest spooked McCoy. All its straps were still tightly tied-it looked like some trick that Houdini might've played. Then McCoy peered into the water and got another shock: the boy was floating below him, spread-eagled, about fifteen feet below the surface. He lay motionless until a current caught him; then it was as if he were flying in the depths. Jesus, McCoy thought, Mother of God. He started saying the rosary over and over. McCoy had never been overly religious; his mom was the spiritual one in the family. But now he began the process of what he'd later call his purification; he'd started asking God to forgive him of his sins. He was resolved to live but he was getting ready to die.”
“Where does a man go when there are no more corners to turn, when he's running out of hope, out of luck, out of time?”