Mil-writing Non-profit Seeks Opinion Writers for Web

While submissions to its four annual military-themed literary journals—one each for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and Post-Traumatic Stress narratives—are still on a summer hiatus, the editors of the Kentucky-based non-profit Military Experience & the Arts (M.E.A.) have opened a call for short opinion essays regarding topics related to military service, working with veterans, expressive arts and writing, and more. The opinions will be featured on the organization's home page.

In a recent Facebook post, the organization offered additional guidance:

These pieces can be written by veterans, active duty personnel, military family members, or civilian professionals working within veteran communities.

Polished, relevant works will be published directly to the MEA website and shared through our various social media platforms. By submitting his/her work, the author acknowledges that he/she has all rights to publish the material and that it is original work. Author should send at least one image for us to feature in the preview pane, a bio less than one paragraph in length, and a picture to go with the bio.

These works need to be ready to publish upon submission. If citing statistics, events, or quoting you should include links to the relevant sources. We will not do more than basic formatting to get these onto the website. Pieces not meeting the above standards will be rejected.

To submit a short opinion essay to the MEAS, e-mail: president@miltiaryexperience.org

The MEA organization regularly provides military veterans, service members, and families with supportive environments in which to develop and share their talents in writing and visual arts. For example, the MEA annually publishes four free on-line journals:

• The Blue Falcon Review: A Journal of Military Fiction

• The Blue Streak: A Journal of Military Poetry

• Blue Nostalgia: A Journal of Post-Traumatic Growth

• The Journal of Military Experience

The group has frequently been featured on the Red Bull Rising blog, including at least two previous mentions this calendar year, here and here.

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Note: This content regarding military-themed writing is underwritten by the Interlochen Center for the Arts' Summer 2014 series of 4-day writers' retreats, including Matt Gallagher's"From Blog to Book: How to Expand Your Web Log into a Book Manuscript," June 16 to 19. The Interlochen campus is located 15 minutes southwest of Traverse City, Mich. In addition to other published work, Gallagher is the author of 2010's non-fiction "Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War." For more information on all of the 2014 writers' retreats, click here.