Benjamin Hertwig
is an award-winning writer living in Edmonton, Canada.
Juiceboxers (2024, Freehand Books), Benjamin’s first novel, won the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and Amazon First Novel Award.
Slow War (2017, McGill-Queen's University Press), Benjamin’s book of poetry, was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Raymond Souster Award, and recipient of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award.
Selected Writing
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![A person with a hat and glasses handling bags at an airport, with a large window showing travelers in red and white uniforms outside.]()
Buried at Centre Ice (Essay)
MAISONNEUVE, 2017 | The Edmonton Oilers’ new arena has revitalized the city’s downtown—and displaced its most vulnerable residents.
Illustration by Jason Lin.
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![A digital illustration of a man resting under a tree at sunset, watching military helicopters flying in the sky with a base and mountains in the background.]()
Going to Afghanistan (Fiction)
THE WALRUS, 2022 | Leadership had already noticed the change in morale since the official announcement. This was the new Canadian military.
Illustration by Mike Feehan.
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![A mural depicting various birds flying in a blue sky, rendered in an abstract, textured style.]()
November (Fiction)
ALBERTA VIEWS (Short Story Contest Winner 2018) | “Kendall used to drive me really bloody crazy. The first time I saw him he was trimming his beard into the sink where I was supposed to be washing that morning’s dishes.”
Illustration by Byron Eggenschwiler.
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![A colorful abstract digital illustration resembling a face with various geometric shapes, colors, and patterns.]()
The Space Between Trees (Fiction)
THE WALRUS, 2019 | In this short story, a former female soldier leaves one macho world for another.
Illustration by Jordan Bennett.
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![Silhouettes of two soldiers wearing helmets, walking along a beach during sunset or sunrise.]()
Home From The War (Essay)
THE SUN MAGAZINE, 2017 | “I am waiting to turn left at an intersection. A driver cuts me off, we make eye contact, and I am caught in the endless loop of a memory I thought I had left behind eight years ago in Afghanistan.”
Photo: Fernando Gomes.
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![An older man with gray hair, beard, glasses, wearing a black cap and black leather jacket, sitting in a beige chair in a bookstore or library, surrounded by bookshelves filled with books. He is smiling and looking at the camera, with a blue backpack on his lap. there are string lights hung near the window behind him.]()
Humble Giant (Profile)
EDIFY MAGAZINE, 2025 | In memory of Farley Woodland Magee, August 27, 1951 – October 11, 2024.
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![A memorial with scattered red poppy flowers and messages, likely commemorating fallen soldiers, surrounded by people standing in remembrance.]()
I served in Afghanistan. Here’s why I’ve stopped going to ceremonies on Remembrance Day (Opinion)
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, 2024
Praise for Benjamin’s work:
“Juiceboxers is an unvarnished, intimately informed dissection of war’s physical and emotional derangements. So many moments in Benjamin Hertwig’s dark but ultimately tender novel reminded me, with eerie precision, of things I had seen and heard while covering the invasion of Afghanistan – the marrow-deep racism; the casual bloodlust; the desperate need to belong to something, anything. To read this book is to contend with what the enterprise of industrial-scale violence can do to its most active participants, the many ways in which one emerges from so bloody a thing dislocated from who they used to be.”
— OMAR EL AKKAD, author of What Strange Paradise and American War
“Juiceboxers is not a coming-of-age story – it is a coming to grips story. The reader is lulled through desert days and nights where time is absent, but the bravado and bigotry of war isn’t. From the sandy hills and mountains of Afghanistan to the slushy streets of Edmonton, Hertwig’s poetic prose leaves us with a sense of hope . . . [Hertwig’s words] do not shy away from horror and healing.”
— NORMA DUNNING, author of Tainna
"We are occasionally lucky enough to encounter a writer we need, like Benjamin Hertwig, who offers solidarity while challenging our assumptions, who illuminates and shades our lives in surprising ways. After reading these poems I can’t imagine a world without them."
—JOHN K. SAMSON, musician and editor, author of Lyrics and Poems, 1997–2012