Combat veterans sought for CSN writing project

Writing can be a way of healing the invisible wounds of war.

That is why the Nevada Office of Veterans Services has teamed up with the English Department at the College of Southern Nevada: to give combat veterans a chance to put their thoughts on paper.

Twenty combat veterans will be selected next month for the Veterans Writing Project, a six-week course aimed at developing skills for writing fiction stories, memoirs and poetry.

The deadline to register online is Feb. 3 at www.veterans.nv.gov.

There are no fees for participating in the project. Classes will be Thursday evenings, Feb. 10 through March 17, at the College of Southern Nevada library conference rooms at the Charleston Campus, 6375 W. Charleston Boulevard.

"It does seem that there is plenty of evidence out there that writing allows people to connect and allows them to think about their experiences more deeply and codify them," said Caleb Cage, executive director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services.

He ought to know. After two tours in Iraq as an Army field artillery officer in 2004 and 2006, Cage co-authored a book about the transfer of command in Iraq, "The Gods of Diyala." Cage envisions the Veterans Writing Project will give 20 veterans a chance to tackle problems with post-traumatic stress disorder by expressing their thoughts in words.

"We'll kind of run this one as a pilot program," he said.

The College of Southern Nevada has enlisted a number of instructors to participate in the project. Among those who will lend expertise is Vietnam War veteran H. Lee Barnes, an author, teacher and 2009 inductee into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

Cage said the teachers include two prose instructors and two poetry instructors.

"We just think it's a great opportunity to reach out to veterans of all generations," he said.

The writing project is open to any combat veteran who in interested in writing stories or poems about their war and life experiences.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@review
journal.com or 702-383-0308.