Veterans Anthology Book Launch & Readings

The new anthology, Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, will have a release event hosted by the St. Louis Poetry Center as part of the Poetry at the Point Reading Series at the Focal Point on Tuesday, November 27th at 7:30 pm. The anthology, edited by Susan Swartwout, was published this fall by SEMO University Press. The book will be on sale at the event with the anthology contributors signing copies. Refreshments will be served. Free.

The Warriors Arts Alliance and the Missouri Humanities Council have partnered to publish this anthology of creative writing by veterans of all U.S. military conflicts from all branches of the service, from World War II to current experiences in Afghanistan. The book focuses on first-hand perspectives by veterans, current troops and family members that give us a glimpse of wartime experience. Readers will find selections in creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and personal photographs documenting and exploring unique times in our nation’s history.

The anthology also includes the winning pieces from the alliance’s national contest. Judges were as follows: Creative Nonfiction: Mark Bowden, journalist and author of Black Hawk Down; Poetry: Veteran and award-winning poet, Brian Turner, author of Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise; and Fiction: William Trent Pancoast, called “the blue-collar writer” by the “Wall Street Journal,” and author of Wildcat and Crashing. (Contest judges will not attend the release event.)

Anthology editor, Susan Swartwout, is professor of creative writing and publishing at Southeast Missouri State University and is the Publisher at Southeast Missouri State University Press which produces full-length books, three annual writing contests, and Big Muddy: Journal of the Mississippi River Valley, an interdisciplinary magazine.