University News

Submissions Accepted for Fifth Edition of SITREP: Veteran Perspectives on Combat and Peace

March 26, 2019

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MACOMB, IL – "SITREP: Veteran Perspectives on Combat and Peace," a literary magazine for Western Illinois University students, alumni, faculty and staff veterans and service members, will continue in its fifth year. 

The magazine celebrates the work of veterans and service members from WIU and from Warren, McDonough and the surrounding counties. Submissions of photography, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, mixed genre and visual art will be accepted.

Submissions for this year's magazine are due Monday, May 20 and can be sent to SITREPWIU@gmail.com.

The magazine will host two writing workshops at the Buchanan Center for the Arts in Monmouth, IL. The events will be held from 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 30 and Saturday, April 27, with all veterans and services members welcome to attend.

The project's advisors, Barbara Lawhorn and Jacque Wilson, both assistant professors in the WIU Department of English, were inspired to create the magazine after years of working with student veterans in their composition and creative writing classes. Moved by the power of their students' stories, and receiving early support from Kathy Meyers, former assistant director of the Veterans Resource Center, Lawhorn and Wilson believed such work should be celebrated and shared beyond the classroom to provide a forum for veterans and service members, as well as foster a greater cultural awareness of their experiences. This year the magazine is receiving support from Ronald Pettigrew, from the Veterans Resource Center, as well as Assistant Professor Jeremy Robinett, faculty advisor of the Veterans Club, who has spearheaded the Military Friendly Credentialing Program at WIU.

The previous four editions, archived at wiu.edu/cas/english/magazines/sitrep.php, feature work by contributors who represent all major service branches and served in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and many other locations stateside and overseas. Contributors have worked in a number of capacities, among them, machine gunner, corpsman, infantry officer, medic, automated logistical specialist, human resources officer, radio operator and pilot. 

This year, the managing editor of SITREP is Ryan Bronaugh, a former WIU English graduate student from Blandinsville, IL (managing and fiction).

The magazine continues to receive valuable support from the WIU Veterans Resource Center, the Buchanan Center for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information, visit sitrep-vv.org. 

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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