Career
Hertzler is the owner of Caernarvon Press, a small literary press based in San Diego, California, that publishes both well-known and emerging writers. Hertzler"s own work includes several chapbooks of poetry and fiction as well as The Way of the Snake, a book of poetry based on his experiences as a soldier in the war in Vietnam, and Second Skin (), of which Dorianne Laux said, "Second Skin provides ample evidence that poetry can be both accessible and powerful, that writing doesn"t have to be obscure or difficult to make us think, to move us. His poetry has also been produced on stage and for radio and television
Here is one of Hertzler"s poems, a finalist in the 2007 North American Review James Hearst Poetry Prize:
Hertzler has twice been one of the winners in The Iowa Review"s Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award for Veterans (in 2013 and 2015).