At the VA offers an unflinching and deeply humane portrait of combat veterans—primarily from the Vietnam era—as they seek care within Veterans Affairs hospitals. These imagistic, lyrical pieces focus not on the battlefield but on its aftermath. 

Author H. Lee Barnes, a veteran himself, addresses familiar wounds such as PTSD, moral injury, and survivor’s guilt while also bringing attention to underexamined experiences, including those of women veterans who have survived sexual assault. The collection honors sacrifice without sentimentality and resilience without oversimplifying the challenges veterans face.

At its center is a quiet irony: the VA can be frustrating and imperfect, yet to be there at all is to have survived. In that tension, Barnes finds a measured sense of hope that will resonate with readers who understand any type of trauma and recovery. Thoughtful and timely, At the VA asks what we owe our veterans long after their service ends.

H. Lee Barnes is the author of ten books, including four novels and four short story collections. His short fiction has received the Willamette Fiction Award and the Arizona Author’s Association Fiction Award. His last collection, Life Is a Country Western Song, garnered the 2019 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Fiction Other. In addition, he was honored by the Vietnam Veterans of America with an Excellence in the Arts Award for his Vietnam War books, and in 2009 he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. He earned his MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University and taught English and Creative Writing at the College of Southern Nevada, retiring emeritus in 2017. He now lives in the Hualapai Valley in northern Arizona.