Voices From War’s
Writing Workshops for Veterans
SPRING 2023 Registration OPEN
All workshops currently running remote on Zoom.
SPRING 2023, our 20th Season
Click HERE to Register (NYC-Manhattan)
More Details Here – including Bronx Registration (Season 15) 
PLEASE EMAIL US – AT info@VoicesFromWar.org – IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN UPDATES ABOUT FUTURE PROGRAMMING, NEWS, & EVENTS!
WORKSHOP LEADERS
KARA KRAUZE – Founder, Director
Kara Krauze is a writer, editor, and educator. Kara has worked in publishing, financial services, the mental health field, and community organizing. Her writing has been published in Quarterly West, Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, Highbrow Magazine, The Daily Beast, Hypothetical Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Poets & Writers, and elsewhere. She has a BA from Vassar College in International Studies and a MA in Literary Cultures from New York University, where she also recently completed a MSW. She is a Licensed Master of Social Work (LMSW) and therapist. Her writing, including a memoir and novels, engages with the subjects of war, loss, and memory. She has lived in Indiana, Ohio, and England, and is a longtime resident of New York City, where she founded Voices From War in 2013.
Instructors – NYC, Manhattan
SIOBHAN ADCOCK – Co-Instructor – NYC, Manhattan
Siobhan Adcock is a novelist, essayist, humor writer, and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of two novels, The Completionist (Simon & Schuster, 2018) and The Barter (Dutton, 2014), as well as two humor books. Her short fiction, essays, and humor writing appear in Slate, Salon, McSweeney’s, and others. She has taught at Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, the Gotham Writers Workshop, Cornell University, and the Auburn Federal Correctional Facility, and has been an instructor with Voices From War since 2018.
DUNCAN MURRELL – Co-Instructor – NYC, Manhattan
Duncan Murrell is a USMC veteran, writer, freelance editor, and editorial director of CraftBook Editorial. A contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, The Oxford American magazine, and The Normal School, Duncan also writes for The Highline at The Huffington Post, Men’s Journal, Our State Magazine, and Southwest Magazine. His work has been recognized in Best American Essays, and he has been a resident at Yaddo. He holds a MA in journalism from Northwestern University, and a MFA in creative writing (fiction) from Bennington College. Duncan lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina, where he is working on a novel and likes to run and coach elite athletes, high school track and field ,and adults at all stages of their running journeys.
BRONX – The Craft of War Writing
JEREMY H. WARNEKE – Instructor – NYC, Bronx
Jeremy Hussein Warneke is a United States Army veteran, who served in Iraq. Following discharge, he completed his undergraduate degree at Sarah Lawrence College. His publication credits include Task & Purpose, NYC Veterans Alliance, Scintilla, the anthology Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War, and elsewhere. In 2017, he was a War Horse Writing Seminar Fellow and a second place poetry finalist for Line of Advance‘s COL Darron L. Wright Award, included in Our Best War Stories. In 2015, he received an honorable mention for photography in Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, Vol. 4. A former Voices From War participant, Jeremy launched The Craft of War Writing with support from Voices From War, The New York Public Library, and the Bronx Council on the Arts in early 2016.
PREVIOUS INSTRUCTORS
TIM KUDO – NYC, Manhattan
Spring 2022
Timothy Kudo is a U.S. Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who writes about the moral cost of war and its impact on veterans and society. He’s been published in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and Washington Post, among others. He’s previously worked as a policy and communications advisor on multiple American political campaigns and was a consultant in the New York office of McKinsey & Co. His work there focused primarily on the public and social sectors, as well as financial services. His clients included the military, global philanthropic foundations, NGOs, and Fortune 100 banks. He has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Business Administration (MBA) from New York University, a Master of Science in Teaching from Fordham University, and earned his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the University of California at Los Angeles. He is currently writing a novel about the Afghanistan war.
NINA SEMCZUK – NYC, Manhattan
Spring 2022
Nina Semczuk served as an Army Officer in various locations and units from 2011-2016 after graduating from Boston University. She is an editor of the Writer’s Foundry Review and is a fiction reader for The Rumpus. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Sinking City Review, Coal Hill Review, The Line Literary Review, Sledgehammer Lit, Rougarou: Journal of Arts & Literature, The War Horse, Racked, and elsewhere. Nina’s work has been nominated for Best of the Net, and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Poets & Writers. Nina has been awarded residencies at Elsewhere Studio in Colorado and at Craigardan in northern New York. From 2020 to 2021, she was a mentee in the Writers Guild Foundation Veterans Writing Project, and in 2017 she was a War Horse Writing Seminar Fellow. In May 2022, Nina will graduate from the Writer’s Foundry at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, NY, with a creative writing MFA. Nina started with Voices From War as a participant in 2016 and went on to become a Teaching Associate and Instructor, previously teaching with Voices From War from 2017-2018.
Guest Writers – Fall 2021
Christopher Paul Wolfe
Christopher P. Wolfe is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights. Chris graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 2000 and served as a Field Artillery officer in the U.S. Army for six years. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in a combat zone. After completing military service, Chris earned his MBA with a concentration in Investment Finance from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and worked on Wall Street as an investment banker during the height of the financial crisis. After five years on Wall Street, Chris earned his MFA from Columbia University in creative writing as a fiction concentrator. At Columbia, he was an instructor for The Columbia Veterans Creative Writing Workshop and was selected for the School of the Arts Teaching Fellowship. Chris has taught creative writing at Rikers Island to incarcerated students as a part of Columbia University’s Justice-In-Education Initiative. His writing has been featured in theBOMB Magazine,Guernica,The New York Times Magazineand two anthologies includingThe Road Ahead: Fiction from the Forever WarandThe Kiss: Intimacies from Writers.In addition to serving as the Artist-in-Residence at the Holder Initiative, Chris has been appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Columbia University’s School of the Arts Writing Program.
Nicole Goodwin
Nicole Goodwin aka GOODW.Y.N. is the author of Warcries, as well as a 2020 Pushcart Nominee, 2018-2019 Franklin Furnace Fund Recipient, the 2018 Ragdale Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship Recipient, 2017 EMERGENYC Hemispheric Institute Fellow, as well as the 2013-2014 Queer Art Mentorship Queer Art Literary Fellow. She published the articles “Talking with My Daughter…” and “Why is this Happening in Your Life…” in the New York Times’ parent blog Motherlode. Additionally, her work ‘”Desert Flowers” was shortlisted and selected for performance by the Women’s Playwriting International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2015.
Fall 2021 (14Y) Instructor: Kara Krauze
DEWAINE FARRIA – NYC, Manhattan
Spring 2021
Dewaine Farria is the author of the novel Revolutions of All Colors (Syracuse University Press, November 2020). His short stories and essays have appeared in Literary Hub, The New York Times, Rumpus, Southern Humanities Review, CRAFT, War on the Rocks, Afropunk, and the anthology, Our Best War Stories: Prize-winning Poetry and Prose from the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Award (Middle West Press, October 2020). He is a contributing editor for The Maine Review. As a U.S. Marine, Dewaine served in Jordan and Ukraine. Besides his stint in the military, Dewaine spent most of his professional life working for the United Nations, with assignments in the North Caucasus, Kenya, Somalia, and Occupied Palestine. He presently lives in the Philippines with his wife, three children, two cats, and a dog. You can find more of his writing at dewainefarria.com.
JESSICA DULONG – NYC, Manhattan
Spring 2021
Jessica DuLong is a Brooklyn-based, ASJA award-winning author, journalist, historian, ghostwriter, book collaborator, proposal doctor, editor, and writing coach, who has worked on a wide array of narrative and other nonfiction projects including: memoir, history, psychology and neuroscience, trauma and addiction, health and wellness, diversity and inclusion, gender, parenting, personal finance, and investing. She is the author of Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift (Three Hills/Cornell University Press, May 2021) the culmination of nearly a decade of reporting about the largest maritime evacuation in history, and My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work that Built America; A Personal and Historical Journey (Free Press), exploring the value of hands-on work through memoir, history, and reportage. Jessica is also a DONA-certified postpartum doula and a USCG-licensed marine engineer who served aboard retired 1931 NYC fireboat John J. Harvey for 19 years, 11 of those as chief.
SIOBHAN ADCOCK – NYC, Manhattan
Fall 2018 – Fall 2020
Siobhan Adcock is a novelist, essayist, humor writer, and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of two novels, The Completionist (Simon & Schuster, 2018) and The Barter (Dutton, 2014), as well as two humor books. Her short fiction, essays, and humor writing appear in Triquarterly, Salon, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, XOJane, and others. She has taught classes and workshops at the Columbia Publishing Course, the Gotham Writers Workshop, Cornell University, and the Auburn Federal Correctional Facility. She has also worked in digital and print publishing at Random House, HarperCollins, Conde Nast, the XO Group, Time Inc., and What to Expect Digital, the leading pregnancy app and website.
DREW PHAM – NYC, Manhattan
Fall 2019 – Fall 2020
Drew Pham is a queer, transgender writer of Vietnamese heritage, a child of war refugees, and an adjunct English lecturer at CUNY Brooklyn College. Previously, she served in the US Army and deployed to Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division. She has published in Blunderbuss Magazine, McSweeney’s, Slice Magazine, Foreign Policy, Time Magazine, The Daily Beast, and Columbia Journal, among others. She serves as an editor at The Wrath-Bearing Tree, an online literary journal focused on themes of societal violence. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
SCOTT REEL – NYC, Manhattan
Spring 2018 – Spring 2019
Scott Reel is a former sergeant in the Marine Corps, serving four years as a combat correspondent and broadcast journalist. Following his service, Scott completed his B.A. in English and Philosophy at the University of Illinois Chicago. He is now the president of the Military Alliance at New York University, where he is pursuing his Master’s in English and American Literature. Scott has written for The War Horse, an award-winning non-profit newsroom, and published poetry in Illinois’s Best Emerging Poets: An Anthology and On the Back of a Motorbike. He currently lives in New Jersey.
NINA SEMCZUK – NYC, Manhattan
Spring 2017 – Spring 2018
Nina Semczuk served as an Army Officer in various locations and units from 2011-2016. Prior to military service, she attended Boston University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in TV and Film production. Nina has worked as a writer and editor at a financial tech startup, and is now the head of search engine optimization content at Fairygodboss, a startup. In 2017, she was a War Horse Writing Seminar Fellow. You can find her writing on SmartAsset, The Muse, itscomplicated.vet, The War Horse, Fast Company, and around the web. Nina started with Voices From War as a participant in 2016 and went on to become a Teaching Associate and Instructor.
NATE BETHEA – NYC, Manhattan
Fall 2014 – Fall 2016
Nate Bethea is a writer and critic. He served as an Army infantry officer from 2007-2014, leaving the military in order to attend Brooklyn College’s Creative Writing MFA program in fiction. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Iowa Review, The Morning News, The Daily Beast, and The New York Times, and he is a contributor to The Road Ahead: Stories of the Forever War (Pegasus, Jan. 2017; eds. Adrian Bonenberger & Brian Castner). He holds a Bachelor’s in Journalism and French from Indiana University. Nate served as a Voices From War co-instructor for five seasons.
JOHN LOSASSO – Co-Instructor – NYC, Bronx
Spring 2017 – Fall 2018
John LoSasso is a retired high school English teacher, dean, and girls varsity basketball coach. Having worked and coached in New York City public high schools for thirty-eight years, he currently keeps himself occupied as an Academic Coach at Pace University-Pleasantville. John began pursuing a “dream deferred” when he started writing in earnest upon joining The Craft of War Writing as a student in 2016. That same year, his short fiction piece, “Buffalo Soldiers,” which emanated from the workshop, was accepted for publication in Proud To Be: Writing by American Warriors, Vol. 5. A native of Brooklyn, John currently resides with his wife in the Bronx, New York.
JEFF LOEB – NYC, Bronx
Bronx Vet Center collaboration, Fall 2015
Jeff Loeb, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, is a writer and educator. Jeff has taught English literature and writing at the university, college, and high-school levels; published numerous memoiristic essays and critical articles; and worked as a radio reporter. His essays have been published in War, Literature, and the Arts, American Studies, and African American Review, among other journals. He has a B.A. In English, Political Science, and History from the University of Kansas, as well as an MA and PhD in English, also from KU. His dissertation was on the literature of the Vietnam War, with a concentration on African-American memoirs of that conflict. He has written one novel and is at work on another, in addition to a memoir. He is the former Chair of English and Chair of Faculty Development at the Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City, Missouri, and presently lives in New York City.
JACOB SIEGEL – Instructor – NYC, Manhattan
Fall 2013 – Spring 2014
___________________
A Writing Workshop for Veterans
Writing and Reading War Stories (in the 21st Century)
In this workshop we write our own narratives, while reading excerpted fiction and non-fiction by veterans, military spouses, and select civilians. Each week we share student work, learning from each others’ strengths and successes, while also discussing ways we can come closer to the stories we want to tell, whether just for ourselves or for a larger audience.
Excerpted texts have included writers such as Phil Klay, Anatole Broyard, Tim O’Brien, Janine di Giovanni, Benjamin Busch, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Mariette Kalinowski, Grace Paley, Isaac Babel, Claudia Rankine, George Orwell, and others.
Thank you to our gracious GUESTS!
We have had the pleasure of hosting GUEST WRITERS and publishing professionals, including Peter Blackstock, Benjamin Busch, Cathy Linh Che, Maurice Decaul, Teresa Fazio, Jofie Ferrari-Adler, Boris Fishman, Nicole Goodwin, Phil Klay, Elizabeth Lewes, Karyn Marcus, Donna Miele, Roxana Robinson, Rob Spillman, and Christopher Paul Wolfe.
“If you succeed [in storytelling], you replace the fragments of memory with something that has its own shape and meaning, a separate thing that has value in itself.”
- Tracy Kidder & Richard Todd
This is a free workshop for veterans.
Prior writing experience not required.
- 2-hour weekly workshop (10 sessions)
- For Current DETAILS visit our WORKSHOPS Page
- OPEN HOUSE: SEPT and FEB each year: 14th St Y (344 E. 14th St., NY, NY 10003)
- NYC-Manhattan: Wednesday, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
- NYC-Bronx: Saturday, 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm
FALL 2022 – Registration OPEN
Questions? Email: info@voicesfromwar.org
Our NYC-Manhattan class is hosted by the 14th Street Y.
Thank you to The Rona Jaffe Foundation for ongoing support 2016-2022!
Thank you to Poets & Writers for support for our workshops since 2013!
Thank you to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council for support in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022!
Thank you to Amazon Literary Partnership for past grant support, 2017-2019!
Thank you to the Bronx Council on the Arts for support for The Craft of War Writing from 2016-2018!
Our NYC-Bronx class, The Craft of War Writing, is hosted by the Morris Park NYPL.
And we could use YOUR support! Contact us about getting involved…
as a sponsor, partner, donor, or volunteer.
Email: info@voicesfromwar.org
◊ Voices From War is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. ◊ Please visit the sidebar or bottom of this page for details — and to support our workshops with a secure online donation. ◊
Voices From War 