“Ten Kliks South” is a short story by National Book Award Winner and Veteran of the Iraq War, Phil Klay. The narrative follows a Marine assigned to the Artillery Gun Six Crew in the Iraq War. His crew is on its first “arty mission” with human targets, which triggers the narrator’s complex emotions about the abstract reality of modern warfare—an increasingly virtual landscape. Over the course of the story, Klay makes clear the ever-growing dissonance between acts of warfare and their violent consequences.
Phil Klay is an author and former U.S. Marine. His writing explores the human realities of war and moral responsibility, and his most acclaimed works include Redeployment, Missionaries, and Uncertain Ground. Through his personal experience and research, Klay uses a combination of storytelling and reflection to examine the lasting effects of conflict on soldiers, civilians, and societies.
Klay graduated from Dartmouth College and later earned an MFA from Hunter College. From 2007 to 2008, he served as a Public Affairs Officer in Iraq’s Anbar Province, an experience which he credit sto having shaped his writing. His debut short-story collection, Redeployment, won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard prize.
