Brian Turner to Kick-off KC-area Workshop Series

A coalition of Kansas City metro-area veterans, mental health, and arts organizations is sponsoring a 5-week series of "Veterans Writing Workshops," with a Sept. 15, 2018 kick-off event hosted by poet, memoirist, musician, and U.S. Army veteran Brian Turner.

The FREE series is recommended for past and present military service and family members. Space is limited, however, so registration is required.

An on-line registration page is here, or call the Kansas City Library at: 816.701.3757.

A Facebook event page is here.

The keynote event is titled "Invisible Wounds of War: Writing Through Injury," and will be held Sat., Sept. 15 from 10:15 to 11:30 at the Kansas City Library's Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St., Kansas City, Mo.

In press materials, event organizers write:

The psychological toll of military combat was underscored a year ago by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which found suicide rates more than a fifth higher for America’s veterans than non-veterans. The Veterans Writing Workshop is designed to address those "invisible wounds," offering a creative outlet for sharing thoughts and experiences or for exploring original ideas. […]

Veterans Writing Workshops are designed to help veterans, active military, and their family members develop the writing and narrative skills that can empower them to tell their stories, whether they be true-life accounts or wholly original tales. For many veterans, having a safe and creative outlet to share their thoughts and experiences or explore their original ideas can be rewarding and enriching.

Speaker Brian Turner is author of Here, Bullet; Phantom Noise; My Life as a Foreign Country. The director of the low-residency MFA program at Sierra Nevada College, Turner also recently released an album of ambient music and poetry as part of the Interplanetary Acoustic Team.

Turner will be joined by Rita Brock, senior vice president of moral injury programs for the nonprofit Volunteers of America, and George Dent, a psychologist at Kansas City’s VA Medical Center. Moral injury is defined as the inability to reconcile wartime actions with a personal moral code.

Later that afternoon starts a weekly series of writing workshops for registered military service members, veterans, and families. Sessions include:

• Writing through Injury (Session No. 1), facilitated by Brian Turner, Sept. 15, 1 to 3 p.m.
• Poetry Writing (Session No. 2): Sat., Sept. 22, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Prose Writing (Session No. 3): Sat., Sept. 29, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• How to Revise Your Work (Session No. 4): Sat., Sept. 29, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Writers’ Critique (Session No. 5): Sat., Sept. 29, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Sponsoring groups for the workshops include the national headquarters of Veterans of the Foreign Wars and the Missouri Humanities Council, along with:

• Kansas City Public Library
• Missouri Arts Council
• Mid-Continent Public Library
• Moral Injury Association of America
• The Writers Place

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