Four veterans will read from their creative writing Monday evening and participate in a panel discussion about the notion of "just war" and the therapeutic value of writing at Fairfield University. WNPR's Lucy Nalpathanchil, a reporter who launched the Coming Home Project and hosts All Things Considered, will moderate the event, which is free, and open to the public, and starts at 6:00 pm in the lower level of Fairfield University's Barone Campus Center.
The evening will begin with readings by Colin D. Halloran, a U.S. Army combat veteran of the war in Afghanistan, and author of the award-winning memoir-in-verse Shortly Thereafter; Lauren Kay Halloran, a U.S. Air Force veteran who has been published in Glamour and in Fairfield's online literary journal Mason's Road; Mariette Kalinowski, a U.S. Marines veteran and fiction writer who often focuses on the experiences of women in combat roles, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times Opinionator, and was included in the veterans' anthology Fire and Forget; and Joe Carvalko, a U.S. Air Force veteran best known for his recent book, We Were Beautiful Once: Chapters from a Cold War.
The panel discussion will also include David Eisler, a U.S. Army veteran, who is a policy-writing fellow at Words After War, a New York City-based nonprofit dedicated to building a community of thoughtful, engaged veteran writers through high-quality literary programming. The Rev. Paul Fitzgerald, S.J., senior vice president for academic affairs at Fairfield, will help frame the evening's program with a brief review of Catholic just war theory. Cinthia Gannett, Ph.D., associate professor of English, a specialist in rhetoric and writing, will discuss the therapeutic benefits of writing.
"As a Yellow Ribbon campus and a Jesuit university," said Fr. Fitzgerald, "Fairfield is honored to host this event, giving our veterans an academic context for their thoughtful reflection on the meaning of their service and the measure of their sacrifices. As well, it affords our campus community the occasion to dialogue with these veterans and thus become more educated about the long term effects of warfare." The event is sponsored by the University's Department of English, MFA in Creative Writing, and the Office of Academic Affairs.
