Perry O'Brien

Perry O’Brien served as a medic​ in Afghanistan with​ the​ 82nd Airborne​ Division​ and was discharged as a conscientious objector​ in 2004. For several years ​he ​ran ​peace-out.com​, a website providing support ​for other soldiers seeking to become​ conscientious objectors​. He ​has been an active member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, and was a key organizer of Winter Soldier: Iraq​ ​and Afghanistan. In 2008 he began working at CIR/SEIU, a union of physicians-in-training, where he became the National Organizing Director. His first novel is forthcoming from Random House, and he is the co-author of After Gandhi: 100 Years of Nonviolent Resistance. ​O​ther work has appeared in the ​ The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, The Nation,​ and the​ literary anthology Fire and Forget​: Short Stories from the Long War.​ ​Perry has a BA in Government from Cornell University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. ​Twitter: Perry_OB​