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| “Lunchtime Poets, Newark, NJ” by Walt Nygard: cover art for Sound Off: Warrior Writers NJ |
A book party and reading from a new anthology of
poetry and prose on war and peace, Sound
Off: Warrior Writers NJ, is scheduled for Nov. 16 at 7 pm at the Geraldine
R. Dodge Foundation, 14 Maple Ave., Morristown, NJ.
The 80-page collection of
writing by military veterans and family members explores the haunting turmoil
of surviving battle zones, loss of friends and sometimes faith, and enduring anguish
on the home front. It celebrates the stirring sparks of life energy in
addressing such experiences through creative writing. Contributors include
veterans of World War II, Vietnam, Gulf War I, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan,
including women combat veterans, and women who experienced hidden sides of
military service as wives, daughters, mothers, girlfriends.
Edited by Jan Barry and Regina Mullen
and published by Post Traumatic Press, Sound
Off is a commemoration of Warrior Writers’ 10th anniversary. The
group, headed by Director Lovella Calica, was formed in 2007 in Philadelphia,
PA. Its workshops and public performances have welcomed and engaged veterans of
all ages in cities and towns across the U.S. Warrior Writers NJ provides
writing workshops at New Jersey community colleges, universities, art
galleries, VA and military facilities and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in
Morristown.
Warrior Writers’
participation in the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in 2014 and 2016
introduced the program to wider audiences. Warrior Writers NJ participants have
also given performances at the Lunchtime Poems Series in Military Park in Newark, New York City Poetry Festival on Governors
Island, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Brennan Courthouse Gallery in Jersey
City, Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, and numerous other locales.
“Warrior Writers saved my life,” says Sarah N. Mess, a Branchburg, NJ resident
who served with a U.S. Army field hospital in the war in Somalia in 1993.
“The closest I have come to coming home has been in this community,” Sarah said
in The Fog of War: Combat Paper and Warrior Writers, a video produced
by State of the Arts NJ. Combat Paper is a creative arts process developed by
veterans that transforms military uniforms into handmade paper to display art
on war and peace themes.
“A lot of
the Combat Paper workshops include a writing element based on Warrior Writers’
free writing style. It really is an immediate way to get thoughts and feelings
and expression out from your head,” David Keefe, founding director of Combat
Paper NJ, said in The Fog of War video. Dave, a Marine vet
who served in Iraq, is director of Frontline Arts, which manages the
Printmaking Center of New Jersey in Branchburg and staffs
a traveling art and writing workshop team that visits VA and military
facilities including the Lyons VA Hospital in New Jersey, Walter Reed
National Military Medical Center in Maryland and Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Contributors to the anthology include Jan Barry, Kevin Basl, Camillo Mac Bica, Lovella Calica, Omar Columbus, Everett Cox, W. D.
Ehrhart, David Keefe, Alison Koffler, Ben Levine, Nathan Lewis, Gerald
McCarthy, Sarah N. Mess, Regina Mullen, Jim Murphy, Joe Nygard, Nancy Nygard, Walt Nygard,
Jenny Pacanowski, Paula Rogovin, Robert Sliclen, Jon Turner, Frank Wagner, Jay
Wenk, Dayl Wise, Eli Wright, James Yee, and Walter Zimmerman.
Sound Off co-editor Jan Barry is a writer and poet whose books include Life after War & Other Poems and
(co-editor) Winning Hearts & Minds:
War Poems by Vietnam Veterans. A U.S.
Army veteran of Vietnam, he’s the Warrior Writers NJ coordinator. Co-editor Regina Mullen is a writer, arts marketer, poet, and Warrior
Writers workshop facilitator. She’s also conducted writing workshops at the Mental
Health Association of Orange County, NY. Most recently, her work was featured
on The Other Stories podcast. Her father served in the U.S.
Navy in World War II and a partner served in Vietnam.
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