T209.
Disrupting the Veteran Writer Stereotype: More than Males, More than Wars
Thursday, March 9, 2023
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
Veterans have often been compartmentalized into an artistic corner, as white and male and PTSD-stigma-laden, often limiting writing to themes of war or hyper-masculine experience. Veterans are more than their situations, more than one category. They are a broader range and redefining the landscape of war writers. Four exceptional writers combine this panel with un-war-like discussion covering the joys and pitfalls of breaking through limiting conventions and enriching the literary conversation.
Participants
Rebecca Evans is a decorated Gulf War veteran. Her work has appeared in Gravel Literary magazine, Scribes Weekly Anthology, and is forthcoming in Fiction Southeast and War, Literature & The Arts. She’s pursuing an MFA in creative writing and is on the editorial staff of the Sierra Nevada Review.
Abby E. Murray (MFA & PhD) is the editor of Collateral, a literary journal concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. Her first book of poetry, Hail and Farewell, examines the conflict between civilian and military life from a feminist perspective.
Mariette Katharine Kalinowski is a former sergeant in the US Marine Corps. She deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2008. She earned her MFA in fiction from Hunter College in 2014. Her story "The Train" appears in Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War. She is still working on her first novel.
Jan LaPerle’s new book of poetry, Maybe the Land Sings Back, was published in spring 2022 from Galileo Books. She completed her MFA from Southern Illinois University. She now lives in Kentucky with her husband and daughter where she serves on active duty at Fort Knox as an Army master sergeant.
Jacqlyn Cope
