NEW BOOK RELEASE
Compelling memoir by combat veteran and
documentary photojournalist JT Blatty
(St. Paul, MN, February 2024)—Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine–A Memoir by US Army veteran and documentary photojournalist JT Blatty, releases February 20, 2024, from Elva Resa Publishing
Like many post-9/11 combat veterans, Blatty struggled to regain her sense of purpose in the first years returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2018, a chance encounter brought her to Ukraine, drawn in by the familiarity of war and those who serve in wars
Over five years, Blatty captured oral history and photographed, often in portrait, a tribe of revolutionaries, the 2014 Donbas volunteer soldiers. As she embedded with them on the front line in bunkers and forests, and in Kyiv flats, Blatty’s story began to blend with theirs in a universal bond of combat veterans, compelling her to stay as a new war began.
“I’ve laughed with them, cried with them, drank far too much alcohol with them, raised glasses in memory with them,” says Blatty, “and after February 2022, when they again rose to fight and inspired the world, I realized that I had become one of them.”
Blatty’s Frontline/Peace Life collection, featuring the portraits and recorded stories of Ukraine’s 2014 revolutionaries, exhibited in Chicago and New York City in 2019-2020 to bring attention to the Donbas conflict, and was scheduled to open in Kyiv in March 2022 but was canceled due to the invasion. The exhibit now serves as a memorial tribute to many who volunteered once again and died defending Ukraine.
Blatty’s memoir interweaves her own experiences in three different wars with her reflections on patriotism, community, and the people along the way who shaped her view of what it means to be free.
About the Author
JT Blatty graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and served six years as an active-duty US Army officer. She deployed with the first troops into Afghanistan following 9/11 and into Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. After completing her US military service, she pursued photography and writing as a career. Her work has been published in numerous national and regional publications.
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ELVA RESA PUBLISHING LLC is an award-winning, mission-driven, traditional independent publisher based in St. Paul, Minnesota, specializing in quality resources by, for, and about military families. Elva Resa’s mission is to make a positive difference in people’s lives. ElvaResa.com, MilitaryFamilyBooks.com
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Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine—A Memoir releases February 20, 2024, available everywhere books are sold.
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Title: Snapshots Sent Home
Subtitle: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine—A Memoir
Author: JT Blatty
Publisher: Elva Resa Publishing
Publication Date: February 20, 2024
Distributed by: Military Family Books; INscribe Digital
ISBN: 978-1-934617-81-6 (pb); 978-1-934617-82-3 (ebk)
Format: 6″x9″ paperback, 176 pages; ebook
Retail Price: $21.95 (pb); $12.99 (ebk)
Case Quantity: 40
More information:
Book press page: ElvaResa.com/book/Snapshots-Sent-Home
Author press page: ElvaResa.com/author-artist/JT-Blatty
Reviews:
“… an intimate, finely-written memoir about the truths and realities shared by soldiers everywhere. … Blatty ruminates about the nature of comradeship, patriotism, longing, loss, life and death; memory and love. … this devastatingly moving book … should be read by anyone who cares about what we do on history’s battlefields, and about how we process what we have done afterwards. … will stay on in readers’ minds for a long time to come.”
—Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer, The New Yorker; author of Che Guevara and The Fall of Baghdad
“Vivid, bewildering, and brutally honest … There’s a cinematic quality to her writing that sears these episodes into your memory, and leaves you with a renewed appreciation of our common humanity.”
—Marilyn Terrell, former chief researcher, National Geographic Traveler magazine
“ … a sweeping and illuminating account … powerful, engaging narrative … a sense of place and people that is usually only arrived at by being there; the men and women who people this book are richly and vividly drawn, like characters in a good novel. … ”
—Alexa Dilworth, former publishing director, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
“Through a series of dispatches, across several frontlines … Blatty weaves a wholly unique and timely account of life during wartime on Ukraine’s eastern front. … Under the blanket of slow terror … Blatty finds love on the other end of her camera lens, and perhaps, part of herself. …”
—James McGrath, former bureau chief, Gamma Presse
View this press release as a pdf.