$20K Helps Iowa Remembers Warm Up for Sept. 27 5K!

Iowa Remembers, Inc., a Des Moines-area non-profit that funds an annual retreat for surviving military families of the Global War on Terror, was a $20,000 beneficiary of fund-raising efforts at the Sept. 9-10, 2015 annual convention of Group Benefits, Ltd., Urbandale, Iowa.

Iowa Remembers is best-known for its annual 5k Iowa Remembrance Run fund-raiser, which draws fields of more than 1,000 runners and walkers to West Des Moines' Raccoon River Park.

The 6th Annual Iowa Remembrance Run event is Sun., Sept. 27. Race start will follow ceremonies commencing 9:45 a.m. A signature array of flags and memorials lines the path to the finish line.

The public and media are invited to attend the event. Pre-race activities include a roll call of more than 100 Iowans who have lost their lives in service to their country since 2001. This year's speaker will be Mysty Stumbo, mother of U.S. Army Spc. Daniel L. Sesker, who was killed in action in Iraq April 6, 2006.

Registration for the run is open until Sept. 24. There is no day-of race registration. Click here to register on-line.

Sponsors for the race event include:

• American Legion Riders

• Casey's General Stores

• Enlisted Association of the National Guard – Iowa

• Fareway Stores, Inc.

• Green Family Flooring

• Group Benefits, Ltd.

• Iowa National Guard Officers Auxiliary

• MidAmerican Energy

• Nationwide Insurance

Contributing organizations include:

• American Legion Post 396, Bondurant, Iowa

• RoadID

• Fitness Sports, Des Moines

Volunteer organizations include:

• American Legion Riders – Post 232, Polk City, Iowa

• Wells Fargo Veterans Team Member Network

• Team Red, White and Blue

• Nationwide Insurance

In addition to survivor family retreats, Iowa Remembers also funds and organizes arts projects that commemorate and support Iowa service members and military families. For more information about the 501(c)3 non-profit organization, or to make a donation, e-mail: iowaremembersinc@live.com

'Pleiades' Seeks Flash & Fiction for Veterans-Only Issue

Editors at Pleiades, a twice-annual print magazine based at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, Mo., have issued a special call for flash-fiction and fiction written by military veterans. A veterans-only issue will be published June 2016. Deadline for submissions is Oct. 15, 2015.

Poetry and non-fiction are not solicited for this issue.

Attached as either .DOC or .PDF formats, send up to 5,000 words of original and previously unpublished work to project editor Seth Brady Tucker, along with cover letter and biography: sbradytucker AT gmail.com

Tucker is himself a Desert Storm-era veteran of the U.S. Army.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Notices of acceptance or rejection will be sent by late November. If accepted, editors will ask for brief essay (under 500 words) describing how being a veteran affects your aesthetic and writing.

A Facebook page for the magazine is here.

Veterans Writing Project Relaunches Mentor Network

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Tyler Smith evaluates the shooting score of a German soldier
at Kunduz province in Afghanistan, July 12, 2013, while conducting operations
in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Photo by Army 1st Lt. Charles Morgan

The Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Veterans Writing Project has recently relaunched a mentorship program aimed at helping military service members, veterans, and family members take their larger writing projects to the next level.

Organizers say the program has previously assisted writers of novels, memoirs, plays, and poetry chapbooks—concrete projects with discrete timelines—using an informal network of fellow writers.

According to the VWP mentorship program webpage:

It works like this: Someone who needs help with a project approaches us with a proposal (simply an explanation of the project and the issues the writer wants to work through). We go through our list of volunteer mentors looking for someone with the correct skill and experience set to take the project on. We connect the two people. Between themselves, they create an informal contract (one full set of edits, two back-and-forths of a manuscript, whatever the two agree on). Once this is complete the two can walk away or continue as they wish.

Coordinator for the VWP mentorship program is Peter Molin, a retired Army officer and former instructor of English at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.. He regularly writes about military-themed literature and culture at his blog, Time Now.

In addition to the mentor program, Veterans Writing Project supports military veterans' and family members' creative expressions through writing through writing seminars, curriculum, and the literary journal "O-Dark-Thirty." The organization also actively participates in and advocates for research into writing practice as a therapeutic intervention.