Voices of Service: A Celebration of Veterans Writing and Weekend Workshop
The creative arts, especially writing, can give military veterans the opportunity to reflect on military experiences, gain insight and solace, process complex emotions, and build public voices and community with other servicemembers and veterans while sharing stories with varied audiences. The weekend workshop will be an opportunity for you to explore your stories and hone and practice the craft of writing guided by published authors who are skilled storytellers/writers.
Syracuse University is a fitting venue for these events given the strength of research and programming by and for veterans sponsored by the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and the National Veterans Resource Center. For fifteen years now, Syracuse University, through the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition, has hosted a writing group and meditation session for military veterans led by SU faculty members Dr. Eileen E. Schell, Ivy Kleinbart, and Dr. Diane Grimes. Syracuse University press is also home to the Veterans Writing Award, established in 2019, in conjunction with the IVMF. The Veterans Writing Award recognizes the contributions of veterans to the literary arts and publishes diverse work addressing veterans’ experience. These initiatives make our campus an excellent place for sponsoring a weekend writing workshop in honor of Veterans Day.
The workshops will be led by:
Brian O’Hare is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, former Marine officer and Gulf War veteran. He’s an award-winning writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. Most recently, National Book Award winner Phil Klay selected his short story collection Surrender as the winner of Syracuse University Press’ 2021 Veterans Writing Award. His film Rizoo, about an young girl deciding whether to wear the hijab for a class picture, was released in January by The New Yorker. His feature documentary Cannon Shot about the world’s largest croquet match between the US Naval Academy and across the street neighbors St. John’s College, will premiere in 2025. He’s at work on his debut novel, A Gathering of Vultures
Dewaine Farria served in Jordan and Ukraine as a Marine. In addition to his stint in the military, Farria served in the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS). He presently supervises field security for the Asian Development Bank from the organization’s headquarters in Manila. He holds an MA in international relations from the University of Oklahoma and an MFA in creative writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Farria’s writing has appeared in Literary Hub, The New York Times, The Rumpus, Southern Humanities Review, CRAFT, The Daily Beast, Consequence, and War on the Rocks. Tobias Wolff selected his novel Revolutions of All Colors as the winner of the inaugural Veterans Writing Prize.
Jenny Pacanowski is a poet, playwright, military combat veteran, and public speaker. While deployed to Iraq with the Army, Jenny was a medic and provided medical support for convoys with the Marines, Air Force and the Army. Jenny is the Founder and Artistic Director of Women Veterans Empowered and Thriving (WVE&T) which has expanded its programming to include men, civlian support members and LGBTIA+. Her writing has appeared in The War Horse, Spring St, Aquila Theater, The Journal of Military Behavioral Health, and multiple poetry anthologies. She wrote the original drama “Dionysus in America,” which premiered in October 2019 at Canopy Theater and The Vortex. In June 2025, Jenny earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Performance Creation.
Complete Workshop application and submit by by October 15, 2025
Workshop descriptions:
Jenny Pacanowski: Empowerment Writing Workshop for Military Veteran Reintegration
Throughout history, ancient warrior cultures such as the Greeks, Romans and Native Americans had magnificent storytelling rituals of homecoming. It was a reconnection to themselves and their communities. Join Jenny Pacanowski who will guide you on the path home through empowering your writing to connect with your readers and audiences.
Dewaine Farria: Workshopping your Writing-in-Progress
For this workshop, each participant will submit one piece of original writing—up to 1,000 words—of either original fiction or creative nonfiction. This can be a complete short piece or an excerpt from a longer work. All participants will be expected to read and respond to each other’s work in advance, and come prepared to offer thoughtful, respectful, and constructive verbal feedback during the workshop session. Everyone’s work will be discussed in depth. In addition to group feedback, each writer will also receive detailed written feedback from me.
Brian O’Hare: Writing as the Soundtrack of Our Lives
If music is the soundtrack of our lives, it can, accordingly, be the driving force behind the fiction we create—setting the tone/mood of both character and action. In this workshop, we’ll read and discuss a flash fiction piece set during the Persian Gulf War. We’ll then make a timeline of our military service– duties, functions, deployments etc.– then pair the list with a song that represents/exemplifies that experience and develop one of our service/song pairings into a piece of flash fiction. Within our lived experience—utterly unique and specific to us—we possess everything needed to create compelling fiction/storytelling.
Acceptance and Payment: If your application is accepted, we will ask that you pay a $100 fee to secure your space in the workshop that can be made payable by check by the deadline date of October 31, 2025. If you do not secure your space by then, we will offer your spot to someone on the waiting list.
The fee will go toward instructional costs, materials, and food provided.
If you are unable to pay the $100 fee, let us know and we can provide information about the handful of need-based scholarships we are able to offer. If you would like to be considered please contact vwasubmissions@syr.edu.