“I’d Walk With My Friends If I Could Find Them,” is the first novel from writer and Air Force officer Jesse Goolsby. Wars impact lingers. It shapes a nation’s life. It also shapes the lives of the combatants, their friends and family. Goolsby wrestles with the ways the war in Afghanistan has shaped his characters and how their characters are reshaped by the experience.

Jesse Goolsby has published a number of short pieces of fiction and non-fiction. He holds an English degree from the United States Air Force Academy and a Masters degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee. He is working on his PhD from Florida State University.

Here is an interview I conducted with Goolsby when he was in town in July for a reading at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, which is where we talked.

-Steve Scher