Ex-US Marine Phil Klay wins Warwick literature prize with Iraq War collection ‘Redeployment’

LONDON – Former U.S. Marine officer Phil Klay has won Britain’s Warwick Prize for Writing with “Redeployment,” a searing, sometimes satirical collection of stories about the Iraq War.

Klay was named winner of the 25,000 pound ($38,000) prize Tuesday. Novelist A.L. Kennedy, who chaired the judging panel, called “Redeployment” a “scaldingly affecting book” about “one of the defining conflicts of our age.”

Klay won a National Book Award in the U.S. for the collection, based on his own experiences in Iraq. Its fans include President Barack Obama, who called it powerful and painful.

The Warwick Prize was established in 2009 to recognize English-language books in any genre and from any country on a specific theme. This year’s was “instinct.”

The prize is awarded every two years by England’s University of Warwick.