“A Story Worth Telling”: Sharing Stories and Impacting Lives in the Veterans’ Book Group Project at Fort Benning by Paige Paquette, with MAJ Adam Anderson, SGT La Toya Burnette, SGT JeQuetta Canady, Specialist E4 Brandon Carr, SGT First Class Nathaniel Coakley, Ret., and Staff Sergeant Yolanda Teamer

In the fall of 2014, Troy University partnered with the Alabama Humanities Foundation, working in conjunction with the Maine Humanities Council, to provide a veterans’ reading group to wounded warriors at the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Benning, GA. The program, Story Swap: Literature and the Veteran Experience, consisted of five, ten-week sessions. During weekly meetings, veterans came together to share dinner and swap stories. While reading and discussing short stories, novels, poetry, essays, and art, the veterans learned much about each other and themselves. In this article, Paige Paquette, an assistant professor of English and the group facilitator, will discuss her involvement in the planning and implementation of the program. Six of the participating veterans will share their experiences in a literary program that allowed them to realize they all have a story worth telling.

 

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