Veteran’s Writing Workshop
MARCH 5 & MARCH 6, 2022
The Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts is pleased to offer The Veterans Writing Project 2 Day Workshop on Saturday, March 5 & Sunday, March 6, 2022, at the Center. The workshop will be held from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM daily. The workshop Instructor is James Mathews, a retired Air Force and DC Air National Guard Chief Master Sergeant. He holds a Master of Arts in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University and teaches fiction at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland as well as the Veterans Writing Project (VWP).
All workshop materials will be provided. Participants may wish to bring a notebook and writing instrument of their choice or a laptop or tablet. Registration is limited to no more than 25 participants. Please plan to bring a Brown Bag lunch or order from our on-site restaurant, The Plaid Turnip.
New Date: Saturday, March 5 & Sunday, March 6, 2022, 9AM – 5 PM
Where: Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts
Additional Thanks to Sponsor:
Community Action Coalition of Virginia
Additional Thanks to Sponsor:
Cypress Chapel Ruritan Club
ABOUT Veterans Writing Project:
The Veterans Writing Project believes that every veteran has a story. They also know that some may need a little help telling that story, so they provide creative writing and songwriting workshops for veterans, service members, and their adult family members.
The Veterans Writing Project approaches creative writing work with three goals in mind. The first is literary. We believe there is a new wave of great literature coming and that much of that will be written by veterans and their families. The next is social. We have in the United States right now the smallest ever proportion of our population in service during a time of war. Less than 1% of Americans have taken part in these most recent wars. Our WWII veterans are dying off at a rate of nearly 900 per day. We want to put as many of these stories in front of as many readers as we can. Finally, writing is therapeutic. Returning warriors have known for centuries the healing power of narrative. We give veterans the skills they need to capture their stories and do so in an environment of mutual trust and respect. The Veterans Writing Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded by veterans and family members.
ABOUT Workshop Facilitator:
James Mathews is a retired Air Force and DC Air National Guard Chief Master Sergeant with over 27 years of military service that includes multiple overseas deployments to Kuwait, Turkey, Italy and Iraq (2003 and 2006). He holds a Master of Arts in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University and teaches fiction at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland as well as the Veterans Writing Project (VWP). Since 2012, he has served as an instructor for the VWP and is also the senior editor for its literary journal, O-Dark-Thirty. His award-winning short fiction has appeared in over three dozen national and regional literary journals, including the Painted Bride Quarterly, Northwest Review, Carolina Quarterly, The Wisconsin Review, The Florida Review and many others. His work has also been included in nationally-renowned anthologies such as the Best American Mystery Stories. In 2008, his short story collection, Last Known Position, was published by the University of North Texas Press and was awarded the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Short Fiction.
