Midwatch

"Danback-McGhan's exquisite and unforgettable stories reveal the ways that women are made to pay for serving in the military. Heartbreaking, funny, and wise, Danback-McGhan's debut will linger beyond the midwatch hours."
-Ivelisse Rodriguez, author of PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalist Love War Stories

"Jillian Danback-McGhan arrives with a great blend of literary swagger and artistic vision. What a bold, brilliant debut."
-Matt Gallagher, author of Daybreak, Empire City, and Youngblood

"Beware the power of stories, behold the power of stories...Midwatch demands that we not look away, that we not stuff up our ears, that we believe the women who've sacrificed when they tell us what it cost."
-Travis Klempan, author of Have Snakes, Need Birds and Hills Hide Mountains


Women service members confront a world that treats their military service as spectacle in Jillian Danback-McGhan's debut short story collection, Midwatch.

Caught in the liminal spaces between past and present, trauma and recovery, reality and delusion, the women in Midwatch encounter gender performance, structural misogyny, and both social and personal violence. A boarding officer fights her destructive impulses while leading an ill-fated anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden; an alcoholic company officer adjudicates a case of sexual harassment and reciprocal assault; a former child actor turned Marine plans her return to showbusiness while recovering from an IED attack; and a young petty officer finds herself entangled in a murderous love triangle on her new ship.

Blending military literature and feminist horror, Midwatch tells the overlooked stories of women service members, demanding that readers reconsider the roles of women in violent conflicts.