PEACE WARRIOR BIOS

Greg Payton: From Soldier to Peace Warrior

Greg Payton is the subject and co-author of Peace Warrior: How I Escaped the Prison of Anger. He was drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1967 at the age of 20 and was charged with many offenses, including assault, going AWOL, and drug use. He was court-martialed and imprisoned in the U.S. military stockade in Vietnam. Greg had a lot of anger having just met and moved in with his father, jazz musician Freddie Roach, after growing up fatherless in the projects of Jersey City, N.J. and hearing the opinions of his father’s friends, like Amiri Baraka, leader of the Black Arts Movement, about the war, civil rights, and justice. Greg was involved in a riot in August 1968 at the Stockade in which the prisoners, a majority of whom were soldiers of color experiencing racism in the military, burned the whole place down. After being sent home, Greg suffered from PTSD and addiction, becoming sober with the help of his wife, Donna, and Vietnam Veterans Against the War [VVAW] leader Clarence Fitch. Greg has become a lifelong anti-war activist in the U.S., Vietnam, Belfast, Serbia, and South Africa, where he met with Nobel Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other anti-apartheid activists. He is the patriarch of a wide extended family and lives in the historic Gullah Islands of South Carolina.

Daphne Arthur: Visual Storyteller of the Struggle

Peace Warrior illustrator Daphne Arthur graduated from the Yale School of Art in New Haven, Conn. with a Master of Fine Arts degree. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis on Painting and Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. She has had one-person shows in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Newark, and New York City and been part of group shows in Hong Kong, Finland, Paris, France, Washington, D.C., and even National Geographic’s polar exploration ship Resolution. She created the sets for the play The Bench: A Homeless Love Story, for the Cherry Lane Theater, and she illustrated the graphic novel upon which it was based. Daphne has received many residencies and awards, including at Yaddo and the American Academy of Rome, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship.

J.T. Molloy: Crafting True Stories That Matter

J.T. Molloy, the co-author of Peace Warrior, has previously co-written The Greatest Beer Run Ever, the true story of a U.S. Marine veteran who snuck into Vietnam to bring his buddies beer and bear hugs. It was on The New York Times bestseller list for six months, and a YouTube short by Andrew Muscato about a reunion of the buddies has garnered 1.4 million views. It was then adapted into a Skydance/Apple Originals movie starring Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, and Bill Murray, directed by Peter Farrelly. Molloy, previously a staff reporter at the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and New York Magazine and author of the kids’ books The Christmas Children and The Cat Who Wanted to Play Baseball, received a Master’s degree from the N.Y.U. Tandon School of Engineering and lives in Brooklyn with family.

Adam Benson : The Publication, Editing and Aquatics expert.

Adam Benson is a publishing support specialist who helps authors with formatting, light editing, and the process of publishing their books professionally and globally distributed. With a detail-oriented approach and a commitment to quality, Adam guides writers through the publication process to ensure their work reaches a wide audience. When he’s not working with authors, he enjoys keeping fish and tending to a variety of plants, combining creativity and care both in and out of his work. We think he shows this beautifully in his elegant design of Peace Warrior.

Anze : The Creative Designer.

Anze Ban Virant is an award-winning designer who distills the compositions of musicians, writers and other creators to convey in a single, bold image the story they wish to express. Anze first immerses himself in their artworks and then designs album covers, logos, ads, book jackets, merchandise and, if they desire, a complete brand that fulfills what they have imagined. Trusted by Interscope Records, Universal Music Group, Sugarwhistle and other publishers as well as luxury interior firms and boites, we feel Anze conjured the perfect cover for Peace Warrior.