Moravian College offering spring writing course for Lehigh Valley veterans

Moravian College plans to offer a writing workshop for veterans this spring that is open to college students throughout the Lehigh Valley.

by Arnaldo Rodgers

The course joins an expanding number of workshops nationwide aimed at helping veterans process their military experiences while adjusting to civilian life, said Joyce Hinnefeld, an associate professor of English who is teaching the course.

“There seems to be a growing sense that writing is a really valuable resource for returning veterans,” Hinnefeld said. “Most won’t do it to become the well-known veteran fiction writers, poets and memoirists that are out there. But they will be able to articulate experience that may have been difficult to talk about.”

The course will only be open to veterans.

“It is not just a writing-about-war class,” she said.

This is likely the first time in the nation’s history that it has had such a diverse body of literature written by returning veterans, Hinnefeld said.

“These kinds of groups appear to be taking off elsewhere,” said Kelly Denton-Borhaug, a Moravian religion professor that helped develop the course. “Our model is unique in that we are doing this as a college course.”

Hinnefeld doesn’t assume all of her students will have seen combat or have horrific stories. There are many facets to explore from personal sacrifice to the possible tedium of a deployment, she said.

“If we failed our veterans, and I think the sense is we have on numerous levels, maybe one way that we failed them is by simply not really listening to them,” Hinnefeld said.

That idea has given her a focus for the workshop: creating writing exercises and a space where student veterans can talk about whatever is on their mind. She hopes to build a safe space for the veterans to craft narratives that address the many aspects of their military service.

The workshop ties into Moravian’s annual IN FOCUS programming, in which the college picks a theme for the school community to explore in-depth for the year. The 2014-15 school year theme is War, Peacebuilding & the Just Society. Daniel Jasper and Denton-Borhaug are co-chairs.

“We are at a point in time nationally where many, many people who have been on the front line of the recent wars of the United States are returning home,” Denton-Borhaug said. “Many are using the GI bill to go back to school.”

The programming seeks to answer questions about the human, economic, social and political costs of war, the consequences of solving disagreements through violence and other questions, she explained.

Denton-Borhaug and Jasper met with local veteran and author Eric Fair when they began developing the focus last year. They wanted input on the issues and realities facing veterans today, Denton-Borhaug said.

The idea for the workshop came out of talks with him and Words Without War, a community comprised largely of veterans trying to promote dialogue between vets and civilians and also provide a forum for vets to share their experiences.

Hinnefeld was looped into talks about the course and was initially reticent as she is not a veteran. But after talking with Fair, he let her know how that could be a benefit. It eliminates any issues of rank or combat experience or lack of combat experience, she said.

“He was quite clear that what mattered is that I am a teacher of writing,” Hinnefeld said.

Students in the courses will be invited to present and discuss their work at the March 27 Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges’ conference on War and Peacebuilding: Drawing on the Power of Narrative and Dialogue to Build a Just Society in the Lehigh Valley. The organization includes Moravian, Lehigh University, Lafayette College, Muhlenberg College, DeSales University and Cedar Crest College.

Veterans enrolled at Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges and Universities institutions, Northampton County Community College and Lehigh County Community College can sign up for the course. It will be held Wednesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.