American Veteran Writers Unite to Read Creative Works from Newly Published Collection

Ten contributing American veteran writers of the anthology “Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors” will meet to read their works at a showcase event celebrating the release of the book at 7 p.m. Nov. 27 at Focal Point in Maplewood. Authors come from Missouri and across the nation. Many of the writers sharing their work are well established, including St. Louis resident Tim Leach, a 2010 Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the 2009 Russell Grant Poetry Award from the University of Missouri—St. Louis. Leach’s work has appeared in more than 20 literary journals. The release event also welcomes Jan Morrill of Fayetteville, Ark., author of “The Red Kimono” and Pushcart Prize nominee. The showcase event is free and open to the public.

The showcase event is designed to give the writers of the anthology an audience for the process of self-expression as well as to provide a venue for St. Louis residence to appreciate what these men and women have to share.

“Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors” is a creative writing anthology of poetry, fiction and nonfiction submissions by veterans and family members from across the nation and spanning generations; from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan. Copies of the “Proud to Be” are available with the Southeast Missouri State University Press, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Proceeds from book sales will help to fund veterans’ writing and publishing programs. The book is the first in an annual series published by the Southeast Missouri State University Press in cooperation with the Missouri Humanities Council and the Warriors Arts Alliance.