Erin Solaro

Four years ago, I was a Washington, DC secretary who was absolutely convinced that the war in Iraq would expand the roles of US servicewomen. Although I had neither institutional affiliation nor previous experience (beyond a few short articles and op-eds) I obtained research grants to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to study American servicewomen; accreditation from the the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Hearst), and embeds with US combat troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The result was Women in the Line of Fire (Seal Press, 2006), to my knowledge the first serious book on women's full equality under arms to appear since 9/11, and what that equality means for America and the wars of the 21st Century.

I have a B.A. in History from Indiana University and an M.A. in Military Science and Diplomacy from Norwich University. While at Indiana, I was commissioned a second lieutenant into the US Army Reserves the the Reserve Officer Training Program, a career I abandoned to marry a Marine officer.

My works in progress include my first novel, The Doves: A Love Story of the Chechen Wars, and To Live – as if in Freedom, a study of six women who dared to become fully active citizens in places such as Stalin's Russia, Nazi Germany and Revolutionary America. I live in what's left of the woods outside of Shelton, Washington, with my husband, writer Philip Gold, and our cat, Rachel.

Follow me on Twitter @ErinSolaro.