Arts of War on the Web

On Friday, May 22, the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland, will present a screening of the documentary, Muse of Fire, a film by Lawrence Bridges that looks at the National Endowment for the Arts’ Operation Homecoming project, which brings together some of the nations top writers (many of whom are Vietnam veterans) and aspiring young veteran writers. Jon Peede, NEA’s Director of Literature Grants Programs and a driving force behind Operation Homecoming, will introduce the film. He will lead a roundtable Q&A after the showing with the poet E. Ethelbert Miller, workshop instructor James Mathews, and one or two workshop participants. The Writer’s Center is located at 4508 Walsh Street in downtown Bethesda. The event is free and open to the public. To register, go to the center’s website. Muse of Fire includes readings and interviews with U.S. troops and their families, along with commentary from a slew of authors and actors who took part in the program. That includes Dana Gioia, Mark Bowden, Ray bradbury, Jeff Shaara, and Andrew Carroll. The original Operation Homecoming workshop participants included Vietnam veteran writers Tobias Wolff, Joe Haldeman, and Richard Currey.

Every year the Popular Culture Association National Meeting has a significant Vietnam War component. The 2009 meeting, which will be held April 8-11 in New Orleans, will be no exception. The meeting’s organizers are looking to include papers and panels on a wide variety of disciplines that make up the popular culture community.

“All approaches and points of view—creative, scholarly, interdisciplinary, multicultural—are welcome,” the organizers tell us, “film, literature, history, sociology, political science, linguistics, ethnicity, folklore, original fiction, poetry, drama, art, music, Vietnamese writers and artists and culture. Whatever interests you about the war and its genesis or aftermath.”

If you’re interested, send a 250-word abstract (including title) for a paper or for a complete panel by December 1 to Mary Sue Ply, Department of English, Southeastern Louisiana University, SLU 10861, Hammond, LA 70466. For each presenter, include a name, department and university affiliation (where appropriate), mailing address, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

For more info, e-mail: mply@selu.edu or call 985-549-3383

The 2008 American Veterans Conference will be held November 6-8, the weekend before Veterans Day, in Washington D.C. This is the 11th annual conference put on by The American Veterans Center. The headliner this year is Lt. General Hal Moore (above), the hero of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, who received a VVA Excellence in the Arts Award for his book We Were Soldiers Once and Young. Among other things, the conference will feature a panel called “Baseball Goes to War,” featuring an array of ballplayer veterans including Hall of Famer Bob Feller.

For registration information and the schedule of events http://www.americanveteranscenter.org/AVC_conference-schedule.html For more information email Tim Holbert tholbert@americanveteranscenter.org or call 571-480-4152