Writing workshop highlights veterans’ stories
Former Marine Phil Klay. (contributed photo)
Former Marine Phil Klay will be at East Carolina University March 16-17 to participate in the University-sponsored Veterans Writing Workshop, designed to coach and mentor veterans and military-connected writers to record their stories of service.
Klay joined the Marines because we were a nation at war, he says. He wrote short stories about his war, and how that war followed him home, so the American people could better understand the consequences of America’s reactions to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. There were stories he had to tell — individual stories about men and women that weren’t being told on the nightly news.
Now he’s returning to eastern North Carolina to help other veterans tell their own stories.
Klay will lead a writing workshop March 16 and will be joined by fellow authors Ron Capps, Monica Haller and Dr. Fredrick Foote at Hendrix Theater that evening from 7-9 p.m. for readings and a question-and-answer session, which is open to the public and is an ECU Passport Event.
Author Ron Capps. (contributed photo)
“I think the craft of writing is the best way we have of dealing with the most vital, painful and beautiful aspects of life. Hopefully, I’ll have something useful to say to writers who are trying to figure out how to approach subjects that are important to them,” Klay said. “Certainly, I’ve found conversations with veteran writers to be hugely important in helping me to formulate my thoughts.”
Klay won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction for “Redeployment,” a collection of short stories about the war he witnessed in Iraq during a 2007 troop surge intended push back against a raging insurgency that threatened Iraq’s future.
“It’s such an odd space to be in, transferring being at war in Iraq and at peace the States, between one’s primary sense of oneself as a Marine and as a husband, as a soldier and a citizen,” Klay said. He hopes that his work, and the writing produced by the Veterans Writing Workshop, will extend a bridge to those who didn’t share the experiences of combat.
Klay continues to be affected by his time in Iraq and the continuing legacy of a war well into its second decade. In February 2017, the New York Times published an opinion piece (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/opinion/sunday/what-were-fighting-for.html) that commended the moral courage of individual American fighting men and women.
“I think I’ve continued to develop a respect for the depth and complexity of veteran’s experiences. I’ve also thought more about the role of American citizens more broadly, whether veteran or not, and the things that unify us as a country,” Klay said.
Veterans and military-connected writers interested in participating in the Veterans Writing workshop can visit http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/veteranswritingworkshop/registration.cfm to register.
-by Benjamin Abel, Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences