Expiation: War and Its Discontents (Paperback or Softback)

David Vancil’s uniquely stirring poems about a military family encompass all four of the major wars in the 20th century and evoke their moral complexities. His consistent tone and direct, unembellished style lend the narratives here the unity of an engrossing novel. Over and over Vancil's observant eye and well-selected details put readers in the scene of a poem and enable us to experience through imagination what he has experienced. Reading Expiation can make us better human beings.

—Matthew Brennan, author of Snow in New York: New and Selected Poems

In its craft, emotional intelligence, and the bedrock solidity of its imagery, David Vancil’s Expiation: War and Its Discontents is as fine and personal a reflection of a young American soldier’s time in Vietnam and its consequences as I’ve ever read. Long in gestation, Expiation is a major work of American poetry, as well as a reminder of what it means and takes for us to be human.
—Tom Whalen, author of Winter Coat and Dolls

In Expiation, David Vancil’s humanity shines through. His measured emotions reverberate through multiple generations and remind us that the horrors of war are not confined to the front lines. The remorse and regret are genuine, and his clarity of expression is to be admired—no, treasured!

—Jerry Bradley, author of Rapunzel’s Parrot

David Vancil’s Expiation juxtaposes a story of an ordinary soldier during 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on a moon rising above the “muck of Vietnam,” with an account of imagined friends at Woodstock. The son of a WWI grandfather and a WWII and Korean War father, Vancil shows us his own tour of duty in “a war without end and having no honor.” His use of understatement allows us to decide for ourselves about the discontent of war that he hopes to expiate.

—Barry Harris, editor, Tipton Poetry Journal


David Vancil has published poetry in journals such as Concho River Review, Blue Unicorn, The Heartland Review, The Hardy Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Westview, So It Goes, WLA: War, Literature and the Arts, and The Main Street Rag. He has published three poetry chapbooks and the well-received collection, The Homesick Patrol. His new collection contains many new poems.