Fine literature for the working class
Selected Short Stories
"Reflections on the Holocene"
Once, someone had asked him, “What was the point of ever becoming alive if all living was only the brief intermission between two endless voids of nonbeing?”
And he had said, “All living is the point. The value is intrinsic in the question itself. What do you not understand about the way of things? This is all we have.”
Ernest
Hemingway
Foundation
2025 Short Story Prize Finalist
"When This Plane Lands"
"heroes fallen as Achilles fell shot through not the head or the heart but the ankle—not a life-preserving organ, but that in the extremities, that which moves you along, that which propels you forward—and unable to move forward and so trapped in the war, you die, you die, and you die"
Best
American
Essays: 2021
Notable Literary
Nonfiction
"Early Spring in Poland"
The train station at two AM was hungry. It was bitter, bitten by a smoldering morsel of anger and absolution and disbelief. Men slept disheveled on the floor with their backs leaned against the wall and women huddled in the corners of abandoned storefronts that had been fashioned into makeshift refugee centers with paper signs in Ukrainian pasted to the front windows that read Біженці вітаються. Refugees welcome. They were two of maybe a dozen words I could read in Cyrillic.
BIO
Born and raised in the Hill Country of central Texas, Warren Stoddard II attended Texas State University and received a BA in English. Following his graduation in 2018, he traveled to Syria to fight as a member of the Kurdish YPG in the war against the Islamic State. He was later wounded in action liberating the city of Ash Sha'fah from ISIS control. After three years in the US, he participated in the international response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the defense of the city of Mykolaiv. He is currently a graduate student in the MFA program at San Diego State University, where he is a Presidential Graduate Research Fellow.
An avid vintage motorcycle and car enthusiast, he has worked as a staff writer for Hotcars and Vehicle History. Stoddard is the author of the novella No Birds in Yesterday and the short story collection A Good Place on the Banks of the Euphrates. His work has been featured in numerous literary publications around the globe; Stoddard's short story "The Way of the World" was the winner of the 2018 Gates-Thomas Prize for Fiction, "When This Plane Lands" was listed as Notable Literary Nonfiction in Best American Essays: 2021, and "Reflections on the Holocene" was named a finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park's 2025 Short Story Prize.
In the Press
NPR:
Endless Thread
Toyota Hilux trucks from the 80s and 90s are famous online. Why?
"The Endless Thread team takes a look at a truck that's so tough, it ends up being used in conflicts around the world.
Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson report."
A Better Way 2A
Episode 51
"We sit down with Warren Stoddard to discuss everything from how he got into building and riding custom motorcycles, to what made him volunteer to fight in Syria and Ukraine. He tells us about going through the airport with a bullet inside of you, fighting for freedom in two countries, about inheriting his motorcycle from his dad, and more."
Croatoan Report
Episode 19
"While with the YPG, he was wounded, returned to the states, and recently volunteered to train the Ukrainian military. Additionally, Warren has published two books: A Good Place on the Banks of the Euphrates, and No Birds in Yesterday. We talk about fighting in Syria and interaction with the US military after being wounded, work in Ukraine, time as a writer, our current cultural shift, and living life as an RPG."
Coffee or Die Magazine
"A Texan's Long Road to War: Fighting ISIS with the YPG in Syria"
"In the summer of 2016, Stoddard learned of Levi Shirley, an American YPG member from Colorado killed fighting ISIS in Syria. The story resonated with Stoddard. He and the Coloradan shared similar paths. Both yearned to serve, and both were not medically qualified for US military service. Stoddard then took the opportunity to reach out via Facebook to the international recruiting arm of the YPG."
The Washington Post
"The FBI warned about far-right attacks. Agents arrested a leftist ex-soldier."
"The Westerners who ventured to Syria as YPG volunteers usually were military veterans looking to continue the fight or idealists committed to the political project, said Stoddard, a Texas native and writer who joined the YPG in 2018."
The New York Times
"American Volunteers Fighting ISIS in Syria Worry About a U.S. Pullout"
"Mr. Stoddard graduated from college in 2018 with a degree in creative writing and the cover illustration from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises tattooed on his forearm. He said he weighed two options for what to do next: a cross-country motorcycle trip, or taking up arms in Syria."
Bibliography
“Reflections on the Holocene.” Hemingway Shorts Literary Journal Vol. 10. July 2025. Print.
As Translator: Orso: Wartime Journals of an Anarchist by Lorenzo Orsetti. Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness. 2025.
“Family Tradition.” Choppers Magazine Issue 20. June 2025. Print.
"Early Spring in Poland." The Palisades Review. May 2024. Web.
“Oh, Atlanta.” Choppers Magazine Issue 11. February 2023. Print.
"The Farrier." Terrain.org Letters to America. February 2022. Web.
“The Devil in Baja.” Dice Magazine Vol. 93. September 2021: 68-73. Print.
"Little Sorrento by the Sea." The Antonym. September 2021. Web.
"After Troy: On Returning Home from War." The Renegade Conflict Journal. July 2021. Web.
“Won’t You Hear My Song Among the Pines?” Freaky Fiction. Vol 3. December 2020: 11-16. Print.
“A Return Home.” Samfiftyfour. September 2020: 24-27. Print.
“When This Plane Lands.” Into the Void. August 1, 2020: 46-50. Print & web.
“Through All That Angry Air.” The Barely South Review. Spring 2020. Web.
“Ghanima.” As You Were: The Military Review. Vol. 12. May 25, 2020. Web.
“Something’s Missing.” As You Were: The Military Review. Vol. 12. May 25, 2020. Web.
“As All Wars Do.” Griffel. Vol. 3. April 2020. Web.
“A Far-Off Place.” Beyond Words Literary Magazine. April 1, 2020: 20-21. Print.
“Dad’s Old ’68.” Dice Magazine. Vol. 85. September 2019: 57-61. Print.
“A Good Place on the Banks of the Euphrates.” Persona Literary Magazine. May 2019: 76-78. Print.
“The Way of the World.” Persona Literary Magazine. May 2018: 8-9. Print.
“Initiation Rites.” The Cost of Paper: Volume Four. April 3, 2017: 39-40. Print.
