Contest: Can You Write the Next 'Starship Troopers'?

The next phase of the Atlantic Council's ongoing "Art of Future Warfare" project calls for short science-based stories about conflict in space during the final decade of the 21st century. Word count is 2,000 to 4,000 words. Deadline is March 31, 2014. Authors may publish under a pseudonym, but a biography is required.

Best-selling science-fiction writer David Brin will help select the winning entry. Announcement of a winner will be April 20. The writer of the winning entry will be provided travel expenses to attend a May 18 event in the Washington, D.C. area hosted by the Atlantic Council, at which Brin will also be present. The theme of the event will regard conflict in space.

The latest contest solicitation reads, in part:

Discussions about the future of warfare are often limited by the temporal boundaries faced by national security planners. A lucky few world builders are able to range farther than their peers, yet they rarely push out beyond two decades. This contest will go farther yet to consider the future of armed and social conflict in space during the final years of this century. The best stories will be relevant to readers of today—and tomorrow. Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" was written in 1865, after all.

Beyond Earth is a blank canvas, the ultimate tabula rasa, where even today’s understanding of physics need not apply in the right writer's hands. All can be made anew. Yet in the same way a black and white photograph focuses our attention on living beings in an image devoid of rich color, the off-world realm gives a limitless tableau for mankind’s altruistic ambitions and far fewer places to conceal its baser qualities. This tension between our best and worst is elemental in science fiction because technology is often used as the broker of this duality. From there memorable characters emerge, even if they are not always human.

All entries will be considered for inclusion in the tentatively titled on-line anthology, "War Stories from the Future," scheduled to be published in fall 2015 by the council's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

For more contest details, including writing guidelines and prompts, visit the Art of Future Warfare project page here.

Mil-Writing Workshop, Brookings, S.D., Feb. 28-Mar. 1

The Veterans Writing Project's Ron Capps will be conducting a free writing workshop, from Sat., Feb. 28 to Sun., Mar. 1, on the campus of South Dakota State University, Brookings, S.D.

The workshop was inspired in part by a conversation at the 2014 Great Plains Writers' Conference, also hosted by the university, in which students, military science and English faculty members, veterans agencies and offices, and other stakeholders explored opportunities for mutual support.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Veterans Writing Project facilitates literary writing workshops nationwide; supports research on writing as a therapeutic intervention in healthcare; and promotes military-themed writing through its "O-Dark-Thirty" on-line and print journals. Workshop participants–including service members, veterans, and family members–learn about techniques that are applicable to writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays.

Amber Jensen, an instructor at SDSU, also notes that Capps' South Dakota seminar is an extension of a writing workshop that meets regularly on the campus of South Dakota State University. Attendance ranges from 4 to 8 participants, and meetings are every other week. "Our goal in the workshop is to create a sense of community, and to ensure that our military-affiliated students and community members know that we value their stories," she writes.

Space in the Veterans Writing Project weekend workshop is limited. Lunch is provided. To register for the workshop, contact Jensen via e-mail: amber.l.jensen AT sdstate.edu

NYC's Voices from War to Conduct Free Workshops

New York City-based Voices from War will conduct a fourth series of free weekly writing workshops for military service members, veterans, and family members. The Winter-Spring 2015 workshop will meet most Tuesdays, 7 to 9 p.m., from Feb. 24 to May 19. There will be no sessions on April 7 and 14, and May 12.

The workshop is hosted and supported by 14th Street Y, 344 East 14th St (between 1st and 2nd Avenues), New York, N.Y. 10003.

Founded in 2013, Voices from War seeks to empower veterans to craft their own stories, whether for themselves or for broader audiences, in forms both fiction and non-fiction.

According to a workshop description provided in press materials:

In this workshop, we write our own narratives, while reading excerpted fiction and non-fiction by veterans, military spouses, and select civilians. Each week, we share student work, learning from each others' strengths and successes, while also discussing ways we can come closer to the stories we want to tell, whether just for ourselves or for a larger audience. The course is team-taught by two writers, a civilian and a veteran.

Workshop leaders are:

Kara Krauze, who has published in Quarterly West; Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts; Highbrow Magazine; The Daily Beast; Hypothetical Review; the Los Angeles Review of Books; and elsewhere. Krauze has an undergraduate degree from Vassar College in International Studies, and a graduate degree in in Literary Cultures from New York University. Her writing, including a memoir and novels, engages with the subjects of war, loss, and memory. She has lived in Indiana, Ohio, and England, and is a longtime resident of New York City.

Nathan Bradley Bethea, writer, critic, and a former U.S. Army infantry officer (2007-2014). Bethea left the military to attend Brooklyn College's Creative Writing MFA program in fiction. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Iowa Review, The Morning News, and The Daily Beast. He holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism and French from Indiana University.

Registration form is here.

A Facebook page for the organization is here.

For more information, visit the organization's website, or e-mail: info AT voicesfromwar.org