Outer Banks Veterans Week free writing workshop for military widows and widowers

The Outer Banks Veterans Writing Project will return to Manteo for its 8th year with a free writing workshop for military spouses held at Dare County Arts Council the weekend of November 7-8, 2020.

This year, rather than its traditional workshop for veterans, DCAC will present a workshop specifically for military widows and widowers titled Letter To My Veteran: A Writing Workshop for Military Spouses, where participants will be assisted in drafting personal letters.

Lieutenant Commander Jerri Bell, United States Navy Retired, from the Veterans Writing Project in Washington, DC will lead the two-day workshop.

“This workshop will focus on guiding participants through an exploration of loss and grief through writing, in a gentle and supported way,” said Jerri Bell. “We’ll look at examples from others who have used writing to shape and make meaning from the chaotic and fragmented emotions that can follow the death of a loved one, and write from prompts that offer some options for the writer’s own journey through that process.”

Lieutenant Commander Jerri Bell, United States Navy Retired, from the Veterans Writing Project in Washington, DC who will lead the two-day workshop. [photo courtesy of Jerri Bell]

Bell is the Managing Editor for O-Dark-Thirty, the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project. Her fiction has been published in a variety of journals and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize; her nonfiction has been published in journals, newspapers and on blogs. She and former Marine Tracy Crow are the co-authors of It’s My Country Too: Women’s Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan, forthcoming from University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books in 2017.

The workshop is open to all skill levels, from beginners to experienced writers. To register, visit DareArts.org/veterans. Please note that preregistration is required and the class is limited to 10 participants.
The Outer Banks Writing Project is part of Outer Banks Veterans Week, which celebrates veterans and their families through the arts.

To support the program, DCAC is encouraging local businesses and organizations to share their plans to honor our military heroes on and around Veterans Day.

“Each year, we collect and publish a full calendar of all the wonderful Veterans Day events in an online directory,” said DCAC Executive Director Chris Sawin. “Our goal is to present the Outer Banks as a welcoming place for military families.”

Organizations and groups interested in listing their veteran events in the Outer Banks Veterans Week calendar of events should send an email to DareArtsInfo@gmail.com.

A special thank you to SAGA Realty & Construction, Sun Realty, Twiddy & Company, and Midgett Insurance for sponsoring Outer Banks Veterans Week. Outer Banks Veterans Week is funded in part by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.

This project is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

For more information, visit DareArts.org/veterans or call (252) 473-5558.

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