Literary Cleveland's New Anthology of Work by Northeast Ohio Veterans Publishes This Week

Veterans’ Voices leadership Credit: Courtesy Lit Cleveland

Since 2022, Literary Cleveland – the local nonprofit organization and creative writing center that offers resources for the development of writers in underrepresented communities – has partnered with the VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare system in providing free creative writing workshops to Northeast Ohio military service members and veterans.

Through an expanding roster of multi-level classes, workshops and events, Literary Cleveland has assisted writers and readers at all stages of development, promoted new and existing literature of the highest quality, and advanced Northeast Ohio as a vital center of diverse voices and visions.

Literary Cleveland’s project Veterans’ Voices aims to help veterans tell their stories and integrate creative activities into their mental health treatment and also helps provide veterans with full writer experience.

“Veterans have such a wealth of experience, and play such a significant role in our society,” says Michelle Smith, the Literary Cleveland’s programming director.

The logical next step after fostering the work of veterans was to publish it.

That officially happens later this week with Lit Cleveland’s second print anthology, Beyond Service: 2024 Veterans’ Voices Anthology, which features 21 poems, stories and essays from 18 Northeast Ohio veterans with diverse backgrounds and experiences, including those who served in Vietnam, the Korean War and the Gulf War. The stories range from different topics such as combat experiences, culture shock and personal relationships.

“It has certainly been a delight to go along with them for the ride on their diverse and far-reaching creative expeditions into the realms of memory or imagination,” says Veterans’ Voices Instructor Christopher Johnston who helped edit the anthology. “It has also always been a tremendous honor to moderate in the workshop with these men and women who have served their country so ably, diligently and valiantly.”

The anthology will be published on Nov. 6, and a public reading will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Recreation Hall at the VA Wade Park Medical Center the same day. This event is free and open to the public.

For those interested in attending the launch party, visit Lit Cleveland for more information.

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