The War Requiem

Kaia Solveig Preus

Selected by Rebecca Brown for the 2018 Essay Press | UWB MFA Book Contest

The War Requiem blends memoir, research, and historical fiction, in order to explore Benjamin Britten’s dynamic piece of choral and orchestral music, the War Requiem, Op.66. Written to commemorate the new Coventry Cathedral’s consecration (following World War II bombing), the composition blends the Latin Mass for the Dead with nine poems by Wilfred Owen. Just as Britten’s piece pulls together many threads and subjects, this book braids three separate stories of Britten, Owen, and the author, to better understand the process of art-making and the lasting effects of both art and war.

“Art is not an alternative to the world. Art is not an escape from, not a solution to the world. Art is the world.

The War Requiems (Britten’s music and Preus’ book) remind us art can renovate the world.”

— Rebecca Brown, from her introduction

“As a soprano in the Chapel Choir at St. Olaf’s College, renowned for its musical conservatory program, Kaia Solveig Preus was introduced to one of the 20th century’s artistic masterpieces, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. The music, composed in honor of the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in England — the original was destroyed during WWI bombing raids — is famous for its difficulty as well as its raw power. In prose as liquid and clear and shining as a bell’s echoing tone, Preus has written a deeply moving and profound account of her encounter with this iconic work, a beautiful and passionate exploration of the power of art to reckon with history’s most desperate events and to transform our understanding of ourselves and others. Preus charts her faltering and yet inspiring progress into the Requiem’s score and into the lives of its composer and the poet, Wilfred Owen, whose work inspired him. Preus expertly collapses time and distance and brings both Britten and Owen to the page in sensuous and intimate detail. An unforgettable debut.”

— Carrie Brown

KAIA SOLVEIG PREUS teaches writing in Minneapolis. She received her MFA from Hollins University and is a 2019 Author Fellow through the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Barely South Review, The Briar Cliff Review, The Drum, Pleiades, and Watershed Review. She is currently at work on a novel and a collection of essays.