Best-selling author, journalist, filmmaker to discuss his work at CWU

Journalist and filmmaker Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm, will discuss his award-winning career and his latest New York Times bestselling book Tribe during a free presentation on May 10 at Central Washington University.

Junger will speak about his work and then participate in a question-and-answer session followed by a book signing. The event, which is open to the public, begins at 6 p.m. in CWU’s Student Union Ballroom.

Tribe, focuses on Junger’s assertion, based on mental health research he conducted, that the difficulties many military veterans face upon returning home from war stem from having to leave a communal—tribal—culture and reintegrate into societies where individualism is valued.

“I thought that the struggle that veterans have coming home was a very good way to look at the problems in modern society,” Junger said. “The topic, per se, wasn’t what I was trying to get at. It was a lens through which to look at why modern society is hard for everybody. We are all vulnerable to the alienating effects of modern society.”

Junger said the book grew out of his desire to learn about, and write about, being a war correspondent. He first did so by traveling to Bosnia in 1993 to cover a civil war underway in that country. That conflict, and his continued exposure to violence, however, changed him and “opened me up emotionally in interesting ways that I did not expect,” he said.

“I started going to Afghanistan in the mid-90s, and then 9-11 happened,” Junger said. “I went back to Afghanistan and, eventually, I was with American soldiers. But, keep in mind, most of my wartime experience was not with the U.S. military. It was on my own in civil wars. I was in Liberia and Sierra Leone. They’re scary. You’re traumatized, not just by the possibility that you might get hurt, but by witnessing other people get hurt. Of all the things that affect you, that’s the most enduring. You go to war and you’re going to change a lot and that affects the rest of your life.”

That included Junger having to cope with and overcome his own post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite his personal struggles and lingering challenges related to combat, Junger has continued to be a productive and successful author, filmmaker, and journalist.

“I take a certain amount of pride in saying things that make everybody uncomfortable,” he acknowledged, adding, with a laugh, “if you’re making everybody uncomfortable, you’re probably on target.”

Despite never having technically served in the armed forces, Junger said being with the troops as a journalist, including for ABC News and Vanity Fair, allowed him to intimately understand what soldiers were going through and how to accurately portray that experience.

“Because I have a foot in each world, I feel like I am in a position to say anything and be, at least, heard—which isn’t true for everybody,” Junger explained. “I feel fortunate at that and I’m very, very protective of that status.”

For his work with, and on behalf of, servicemen and servicewomen, Junger received the “Leadership in Entertainment Award” from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Junger has also received a National Magazine Award and a Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies prize for journalism.

His ended war reporting after having to struggle with the death of his friend, photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed while covering the conflict in Libya.

“I saw the effect of Tim’s death on all the people he loved,” Junger said. “All sudden, war reporting seemed, sort of, selfish and self-involved instead of heroic and noble.”

Junger may be best known for his 1997 New York Times best-selling book The Perfect Storm, which became an Academy Awards-nominated movie three-years later.

“I was working as climber for tree companies and I got hurt doing that,” Junger said. “I hit my leg with a saw when I was up in the top of a tree on a rope. As I was recovering from that—I had always wanted to be a writer—and I thought that, maybe, I would write a book about dangerous jobs. The first job that I focused on was commercial fishing, because I was living in a fishing town called Gloucester, Massachusetts. My idea was to do all of these jobs and, if I couldn’t sell a book on them, maybe, I could wind up doing one of them.”

Junger’s next project is a National Geographic film, to be broadcast in June, about the civil war in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“I didn’t do any shooting over there; we got our footage in other ways,” Junger said. “But I directed [and narrated] it along with my colleague Nick Quested. It’s called Hell on Earth.”

Media contact: Robert Lowery, director of Radio Services and Integrated Communications, 509-963-1487, Robert.Lowery@cwu.edu