Connelly Library

William (Bill) Glose joined ROTC at Virginia Tech in hopes of becoming a fighter pilot like his father. Due to his poor eyesight, Glose instead became a paratrooper in the 82d Airborne. Graduating with a BS in Civil Engineering, Glose worked in that field briefly before reporting to Fort Benning. Glose served in Panama and the Middle East, where he served as a combat platoon leader in the Gulf War. In five years in the 82nd, he earned his Ranger Tab and Senior Jumpmaster Wings.

After serving in the Army, Glose moved on to manufacturing. He was a line supervisor in a Chicago factory and then a plant manager in Massachusetts. In 1998, he walked away from a career in manufacturing to dedicate his life to writing.

Glose has written hundreds of articles, short stories, poems, and essays for magazines and literary journals. In 2011 he was named the Daily Press Poet Laureate and in 2017 he was featured by NPR on The Writer’s Almanac. His story collection All the Ruined Men won the 2023 Library of Virginia Fiction Award. Other honors include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Award and the Dateline Award for Excellence in Journalism. 

Find out more about Bill Gloss by visiting his website:  www.billglose.com

The Department of Special Collections preserves the literary archive of William Glose's writings about the Vietnam War and other topics. This literary archive is part of the larger Imaginative Representations of the Vietnam War collection. For research assistance with the William Gloss papers, please contact Dr. Heather Willever-Farr, Special Collections Librarian (willeverfarr@lasalle.edu).

Please use the below link to explore the finding aid for his papers. 

The Imaginative Representations of the Vietnam War Collection is the largest collection of literary and creative works on the Vietnam War in the world; comprising over 20,000 books of fiction and poetry together with more than 1,000 non-print items. Housed in the Department of Special Collections in the Connelly Library, the Vietnam War Collection serves as a growing repository of works concerned with the experience of the Vietnam War. In addition to the extensive holdings of published literature and feature films, the Collection also houses a number of archival collections, literary manuscripts, and original works of art.   

Pictured above: "Burn." The "Nam vol. 1, no. 75 (Dec. 1992). Marvel Comics Group : Cover.