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Writer Workshop Here For Veterans of All Wars
Who better to tell the story of the armed forces than the U.S. troops and veterans who have served? That’s the idea behind a new series of writing workshops for veterans hosted by the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in St. Louis, Missouri starting.Oct, 23.
Guest instructor Andrew Carroll will teach the St. Louis VAMC workshops. Andrew Carroll, considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on wartime correspondence, is editor of the Operation Homecoming anthology, along with several bestsellers, including Behind the Lines and War Letters.
To help workshop participants give voice to their experiences, each will receive an Operation Homecoming writer’s guide with samples of wartime writing by veterans and civilians along with a CD of audio recordings of war literature from the Civil War to the Vietnam War.
Two separate weekly series of Operation Homecoming writing workshops will take place at the Jefferson Barracks Campus of the VA Medical Center in St. Louis. The first, four-week writing workshop series will take place on Thursday evenings from 6 – 8 p.m. in Building 50 starting on Oct.23. The Thursday evening writing workshops will be open to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
A second, four-week writing workshop series begins on Friday, Oct. 24, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. in Building 65, and will be open to veterans of both current and past conflicts. The Operation Homecoming writing workshops are free.
To register for the workshops, contact Rita Reichert, Community Living Center, VAMC, 314-652-4100 x63286.
Since 2004, the NEA Operation Homecoming writing program has collected the stories of U.S. military personnel and their families. With support from The Boeing Company, Operation Homecoming has brought more than 60 writing workshops to troops at more than 30 domestic and overseas military installations from Camp Pendleton in California to USS Carl Vinson in the Persian Gulf and Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. Among the original workshop teachers are distinguished writers Tobias Wolff, Jeff Shaara, Marilyn Nelson, Richard Bausch, Bobbie Ann Mason, Joe Haldeman, and Mark Bowden.
In tandem with the workshops, the Arts Endowment made an open call for writing submissions to active military personnel and their families. This ongoing call has resulted in more than 1,200 submissions and 12,000 pages of writings. Almost 100 of the submissions to the NEA were featured in the Operation Homecoming anthology. Operation Homecoming was named one of the “Best of 2006” in nonfiction by The Washington Post Book World. The documentary feature Operation Homecoming, inspired by the NEA anthology and program, was nominated for an Academy Award® and received two EMMY® Awards.
Submissions
The National Endowment for the Arts is still collecting writing from U.S. troops, veterans, and their immediate family members about their wartime experiences. There are no restrictions upon genre — poems, letters, personal narratives, stories, memoir, journal writing, and other literary forms are all welcome. The Operation Homecoming archives collected during Phase I of the program (April 2004 to April 2008) will be preserved in both the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. Submissions from the newly launched Phase II also will be preserved. Submission guideline information, along with Operation Homecoming writing workshop schedule, writer’s guide, audio clips, and photo galleries of past workshops are available at www.operationhomecoming.gov.
Workshop registration
Two separate weekly series of Operation Homecoming writing workshops will take place at the Jefferson Barracks Campus of the VA Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The first, four-week writing workshop series will take place on Thursday evenings from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. in Building 50 starting on October 23. The Thursday evening writing workshops will be open to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. A second, four-week writing workshop series begins on Friday, October 24, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. in Building 65, and will be open to veterans of both current and past conflicts. The Operation Homecoming writing workshops are free. To register for the workshops, contact Rita Reichert, Community Living Center, VAMC, 314-652-4100 x63286.
Announcement event
A special announcement event will take place on Thursday, October 23 at 11:00 a.m. at Jefferson Barracks. Media must RSVP for the October 23 event by contacting Marcena Gunter, Public Affairs Officer, St. Louis VAMC at 314-289-6379 or Sally Gifford, NEA Communications, 202-682-5606.
Operation Homecoming is presented in coordination with the Department of Defense and the Southern Arts Federation. Operation Homecoming is made possible by The Boeing Company.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
