ROANOKE, Va. A new program called the Veterans Poetry Project is helping veterans write about difficult service experiences, and it is collecting the results.
In May, award-winning poet Mark Fryburg and Vietnam War veteran Ken Conklin appeared on WDBJ7 to promote a workshop held May 16 at the Raleigh Court Library in Roanoke. Two months earlier, on March 21, the project ran a session at the 2026 Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, led by Virginia Poet Laureate Mattie Quesenberry Smith. Veterans were invited to write poems, get feedback, and submit work for the project’s upcoming anthology, Perseverance & Resilience. The festival’s 2026 theme was “Revolutions,” tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary.
A similar program is running in North Carolina this fall. Dare Arts holds its 14th annual Veterans Writing Workshop on November 14 and 15 at the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day. Dario DiBattista, a former Marine Reserve member who edited the 2016 collection Retire the Colors, teaches it with the Veterans Writing Project. It covers fundamentals, exercises, and revision, and ends with participants reading their work aloud. It is free for veterans, active-duty military, and their extended families, and advance registration is required. The same week, Dare Arts presents “Letters From Home,” a free performance at the Pioneer Theater in Manteo on November 7 at 7 p.m.
Sources: WDBJ7 (May 14, 2026); Veterans Poetry Project post (Feb. 28, 2026); Dare Arts Outer Banks Veterans Program page.
