Tim O'Brien (author)

Tim O'Brien (born October 1, 1946) is an American writer. He was a soldier in the U. S. Army from 1968 until 1970. He fought in the Vietnam War. His time in that war plays an important part in his writing. His novel "Going after Cacciato" is about the search for a soldier who runs away from the war. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1979.
O'Brien graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1968. He was then drafted into the U. S. Army and served in Vietnam as a foot soldier. For his work there, he was given a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He then went to Harvard University from 1970 until 1976. He worked as a reporter for the Washington Post until 1975.
In 2010, O'Brien received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College. In 2012, O'Brien received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2013, he was awarded the $100,000 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award.