EDITOR’S DESK
Ted Genoways — Graveyard of Empires: Nine Months on the Ground in Obama’s Afghanistan

VQR PORTFOLIO
J. Malcolm Garcia — Most Dangerous, Most Unmerciful
Jason Motlagh — The Bombing at Bala Baluk
Louie Palu — Total War
Neil Shea — The Talking Season
Guy Smallman — The Granai Village Massacre
Elliott D. Woods — The Path to Yaghestan

DISPATCH
Dimiter Kenarov — Unapproachable Light

ESSAY
Edward Falco — An Elliptical Essay on Violence
Michael David Lukas — Workshopping the Next Generation of American War Literature

VQR GALLERY
Chris Hondros — Haiti, Fallen
Joe Sacco — The Unwanted, Part 2

FICTION
Paul Theroux — Minor Watt

POETRY
Peter Balakian — Sarajevo
Albert Goldbarth — True Void and Smallish
Kevin Hart — Dark Bird and Grandmother, Charlottesville
Erika Meitner — Elegy with Construction Sounds, Water, Fish
Ricardo Pau-Llosa — Dos Gardenias Para Ti
Patrick Phillips — Mercy
Paisley Rekdal — Ballard Locks
Tadeusz Rozewicz and Joanna Trzeciak — Survivor, The Story of Old Women, Autumnal, As You’re Leaving, My Poetry, a finger to the lips, and Butcher’s Booths
Brian Turner — Viking 1
C. K. Williams — Jew on Bridge

BOOK REVIEWS
Book Notes
Matthew Shaer — Understanding Mathilda
Craig Morgan Teicher — There Is No Place That Does Not See You