The Weight of My Armor: Creative Nonfiction and Poetry by the Syracuse Veterans' Writing Group

Abstract

Edited by Ivy Kleinbart, Peter McShane, and Eileen Schell Working and Writing for Change Series Editors: Steve Parks and Jessica Pauszek Information and Pricing 978-1-60235-948-2 (paperback, $19.95); 978-1-60235-949-9 (PDF, $9.99). © 2017 by New City Community Press. 172 pages with illustrations, notes, and bibliography. Bookstores : Order by fax, mail, or phone. See our "Sales and Ordering Page" for details. About This Book The essays and poems in The Weight of My Armor represent the work of twenty-three members of the Syracuse Veterans' Writing Group, which meets monthly on the Syracuse University campus. Since 2010, the group has served as an intergenerational community where veterans and military family members write about their lives in and beyond the military. The Weight of My Armor offers creative nonfiction and poetry that spans a range of military experiences, including overseas deployments and combat, military acculturation and training, adventure and camaraderie, shock and loss, and endurance and survival. This collection also addresses aspects of the military experience that receive less public attention such as gender oppression and military sexual trauma, the long-term physical and psychological costs of warfare, the complex challenges of familial and social reintegration, and the experience of growing up in a military family. In honest and courageous voices, these writers bear witness to events and circumstances that were largely beyond their control. They also reflect on their service, representing it with the accuracy and specificity unique to first person narratives. Taken together, these pieces encourage dialogue about the personal, social, and economic costs of our nation's wars, both past and present. Praise for The Weight of My Armor "You can't get more authentic than this volume from the Syracuse Veterans' Group. If you've ever said to a veteran, 'Thank you for your service,' and then wondered to yourself what that service might actually have