Warrior Writers

04/21/2026

Please join us for the culmination of our Outside the Wire Program with the Rutgers-Camden Writers House! To close out the year, we will be celebrating veteran voices with a reading and open mic, THIS THURSDAY, APRIL 23rd! Come hear readings from featured authors published in this year's Outside the Wire Literary Magazine, as well as an opportunity for audience members to share their own written work in an open mic format! If you are in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area, join us at the Rutgers-Camden Campus Center, where refreshments will also provided. If you can't join in person, the event will be livestreamed! For more information and the livestream link visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/outside-the-wire-literary-magazine-reading-open-mic-tickets-1985444320409

Outside the Wire is a multi-format humanities project that highlights the narratives and experiences of American veterans throughout the country’s history of conflict. This year, we have explored the diverse ways veterans, active duty service members, and their families encounter the theme of celebration: whether it’s an exploration of overcoming hurdles and reaching milestones, how we celebrate in hard times, searching for joy when the world feels joyless, or an unexpected encounter with a different emotion when celebration was expected.

02/06/2026

Today! See you on Zoom if you need a creative writing break today. Zoom link in comments below 👇

Need a creative space today? Join our Lunch Break for a casual, welcoming, generative writing workshop. ✏️ As always, free and open to veterans of any era, regardless of writing experience. 12:30pm-2:30pm ET. Zoom information is in the comments below 👇

01/02/2026

Happy New Year Warrior Writers community! Start your 2026 off with some creative writing. Our Lunch Break Writing Workshop meets today on Zoom at 12:30pm ET. As always, workshops are completely free and open to any veteran, regardless of writing experience. See the comments below for the Zoom link ✏️

Need a creative space today? Join our Lunch Break for a casual, welcoming, generative writing workshop. ✏️ As always, free and open to veterans of any era, regardless of writing experience. 12:30pm-2:30pm ET. Zoom information is in the comments below 👇

12/05/2025

Happy December! ❄️ Check out our regular recurring workshop schedule for the month (including our "Lunch Break" session TODAY at 12:30pm ET; see the Zoom info in the comments below ⬇️). We hope you're able to join us online or in person. As always, these writing workshops are completely free and open to any veteran, regardless of writing experience. ✏️ If you need a space to write and share, we are here.

Visit www.warriorwriters.org/events.html for more info on in person workshops.

See you soon!

12/04/2025

Submit to the 2026 Outside the Wire Literary Magazine! 🎉 As part of our partnership with the Rutgers-Camden Writers House, they are producing a literary magazine featuring the voices of veterans, service members, and military families with ties to South Jersey and Pennsylvania. If that describes you, consider submitting your artwork! Submission link: https://writershouse.camden.rutgers.edu/programs/outside-the-wire/submit-to-the-2026-outside-the-wire-literary-magazine/ ✍🏽

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Accepting submissions from November 22nd, 2025 to February 23rd, 2026.

We are currently accepting previously unpublished work in the following mediums that deal with the theme of CELEBRATION:

✏️Short fiction and essays (up to 5,000 words)
📝Flash fiction and essays (Up to 1,000 words each)
📖Poetry (Up to 3 poems)
🎨Digital Paintings
📸Photographs (including photographs of a separate art piece you’ve made, such as a painting or sculpture)

With CELEBRATION we are looking for writing which captures all of the emotions and experiences associated with celebration, even if they feel unconventional. Whether it’s an exploration of overcoming hurdles and reaching milestones, how we celebrate in hard times, searching for joy when the world feels joyless, or an unexpected encounter with a different emotion when celebration was expected, we would love to read your short fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry, and look at your art.

We invite work that broadly interprets our theme. You are welcome to make multiple submissions (limit of 3) which can be of the same or different genres.

11/12/2025

If you're in Philadelphia, check out Warrior Writer Jan Barry at the Free Library of Philadelphia for this Author Talk tomorrow, November 13th!
https://libwww.freelibrary.org/calendar/event/158369

Thursday, November 13th - 5:30pm
Free Library - 1901 Vine Street, History Department on the 2nd floor

“One Jan Barry’s most characteristic beliefs comes from a poem called “The Peacemaker” by Walker Knight: “Peace, like war, is waged.” Jan Barry has been actively and energetically waging peace since he turned away from an appointment to the US Military Academy and chose a very different path into his own future.

All through the book, I encounter over and over again Jan’s refusal to give in to despair, his unwavering belief that good will eventually come of good-willed people acting together. He challenges Americans to protest and resist the agenda of the “tyrannical head of state” now occupying the White House. He urges all of us to vigorously and actively support federal employees, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, Palestinian self-determination, and a free and independent Ukraine.

“Here, in a few words, is what Jan Barry taught me: ‘take that rage and pain and frustration and do something constructive with it.’” – W. D. Ehrhart

Waging Peace: From Vietnam to Volgograd ($30.00 – 2025) is a collection of essays, poetry and art by Jan Barry, a Veterans For Peace Poet Laureate and cofounder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The memoir conveys memorable stories about the transformation of soldiers in war zones into communities of peace activists. Jan Barry is the author of Waging Art: Tackling Grief and Trauma with Creative Arts, among other works.

Smart Fish Don’t Bite ($22.00 – 2025) by W. D. Ehrhart, a Marine Corps veteran of both the Vietnam War and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The author of multiple books of both prose and poetry, including Vietnam-Perkasie: a Combat Marine Memoir, and Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems. As the poems in this most recent collection demonstrate, he is a writer who fought in Vietnam, not a Vietnam writer.

Hope to see you there~

11/07/2025

Welcome November! 🍂 We have lots of veteran writing workshops coming up this month (including our "Lunch Break" session TODAY; see the Zoom info in the comments below ⬇️). We hope you're able to join us online or in person. As always, these writing workshops are completely free and open to any veteran, regardless of writing experience. ✏️

See comments below for details about registering for the Outside the Wire and BIPOC workshops, and visit www.warriorwriters.org/events.html for more info on in person workshops.

See you in a creative space soon!

11/05/2025

We are excited to continue our many years long partnership with the Rutgers-Camden Writers House and their Outside the Wire program! Join us virtually on Zoom for a free writing workshop for veterans, service members, and their families on November 22nd, 2pm-5pm ET! Register here: https://writershouse.camden.rutgers.edu/events/outside-the-wire-virtual-creative-writing-workshop/

This generative creative writing workshop will offer prompts from various forms of art surrounding themes of reaching milestones, how we celebrate in hard times, and how we search for joy when the world feels joyless. We will examine and discuss art created by veterans and spend time writing our reflections. We encourage participants to share stories, opinions, and ideas to lead to productive writing and storytelling. “Generative” refers to creating something new in this space. These workshops focus on finding inspiration and how the act of writing and sharing in community can help us process and even heal. These workshops are open to ALL veterans, service members, and their families; as always, no prior writing experience is necessary. Just bring yourself and your writing instrument of choice! ✏️

Participants in this workshop will have the opportunity to submit their work to the Outside the Wire literary exhibit, to be published by the Rutgers-Camden Writers House in spring 2026!

10/03/2025

It’s the first Friday of the month, so you know what that means. If you need a space to write, share, and connect, join us on Zoom for a causal creative writing workshop for all veterans - no writing experience needed. Zoom information in the comments below 👇

Need a creative space today? Join our Lunch Break for a casual, welcoming, generative writing workshop. ✏️ As always, free and open to veterans of any era, regardless of writing experience. 12:30pm-2:30pm ET. Zoom information is in the comments below 👇

09/04/2025

Happy September! We have lots of workshops happening both online and in person this month. If you need some space to write and share, we are here for you. As always, all workshops are completely free and all veterans are welcome to attend, regardless of writing experience. ✏️

For more details about locations and registration, visit: https://www.warriorwriters.org/events.html 👈