Conversation Starters: Military Writers Workshops: Community Programming for Military Veterans

Join us for a discussion of our experiences organizing, planning, and promoting a series of writing workshops for military veterans in the Washington, D.C. area. Our project builds upon the work of Amy Hartman and Holly Baumgartner that was featured in American Libraries in November 2011; as federal librarians, we were eager to extend such an excellent opportunity for education and lifelong learning to a greater number of veterans. Come learn about the importance of community programming for military veterans, the challenges that libraries may face in the process of developing programs for veterans, and the steps involved in designing our writing workshops! Attendees will gain an appreciation of the art of writing memoir, and will learn that memoir writing offers non-professional writers opportunities to enrich their lives by creating stories based on life experiences, as well as to contribute to the cultural and historical record. Presenters will also discuss marketing, outreach, and promotion of writing workshops, and strategies for overcoming the challenges associated with recruiting participants. We hope you will join us!

Speakers:
- Nancy Faget, Information Resources Branch Chief, Army Research Laboratory; Michelle Dunaway, MLIS Candidate, University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, and ALA NMRT-FAFLRT Liaison, 2011-2012