The William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences sponsored the 29th Writers’ Workshop, which features classes and individual consultations in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and memoir, last month. The two-week workshop also included special topics such as songwriting, using theater for social change, and using art to build bridges in Iraq. The Writers’ Workshop kicked off on June 20 with a panel titled, “Women Veterans Speak.”
The panelists were Margaret Laneri, the director of the Worcester Vet Center and a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Reserves; Savina Martin, a U.S. Army veteran, social justice activist, advocate, and writer who is working on a play about veterans; Giselle Sterling, a Marine Corps veteran and Commissioner of Veterans’ Services for the City of Boston; and Nicole Waybright, who was part of the first wave of women to serve at sea on combat vessels. The U.S. Navy veteran published her first book, Long Way Out: A Young Woman's Journey of Self-Discovery and How She Survived the Navy's Modern Cruelty at Sea Scandal, in February.
Erin Leach-Ogden, the grant and research coordinator for the Joiner Institute and a U.S. Army veteran herself, moderated the discussion. Leach-Ogden began the discussion by reading portions of a 2014 New York Times article called “The Things She Carried,” written by Cara Hoffman.
Pictured above (from left to right)Women Veterans Speak Panelists Margaret Laneri, Savina Martin, Giselle Sterling, and Nicole Waybright.
Article summary and photo courtesy: Colleen Locke