Hello, Military Writers Guild!
Welcome to this month’s MWG newsletter, part of a monthly series where you can find information about the MWG, what the guild has been doing, and how you can be involved.
Updates:
MILITARY WRITERS GUILD FELLOWSHIP WINNERS:
The MWG Fellowship winners for the Forge Individual Writing Fellowship and the Professor Richard H. Kohn Cohort Writing Fellowship have been announced. Check out recent MWG social media posts OR the Fellowship page on the MWG website to learn more about the fellows and their projects.
2026-2027 Forge Fellows: Michael Farwig and Nick Romanow
2026-2027 Professor Richard H. Kohn Cohort Writing Fellowship Fellows: Arthur Billingsley, Nikki Dean, and Jeremy Kofsky.
The Kohn Fellowship will be supported by MWG members: Dr. Jesse Goolsby and Dr. Trent J. Lythgoe.
Apply to join the Military Writers Guild:
The application submission window to join the Military Writers Guild is now CLOSED. New members will be notified in September 2026.
MWG Giving Fund
Please consider donating to the Military Writers Guild at https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/3938874
Donations will help the Military Writers Guild fund programs, such as the Awards program and podcast, as well as future events. These programs and events help our members gain a wider audience for their work, connect with other writing practitioners, and support the continued growth of the Military Writers Guild. Thank you for your support.
FOR UK/EU MWG Members:
From MWG Member Ruben Stewart:
My name is Ruben Stewart and I have been an MWG member for a few years now. I have recently moved to London to take up a post at IISS and wanted to offer my services in setting up some social and/or professional get togethers for members who are in the UK, Europe or passing through. If the numbers are sufficient I can convince the IISS to host these activities at IISS.
If you’re a MWG member who is located in the UK, Europe, or who is going to be in the area, please reach out to Ruben at the information below to connect!
Ruben Stewart, Senior Fellow for Land Warfare
+44(0) 751 230 3582 MOBILE
+44 (0) 207 379 7676 OFFICE
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
Arundel House, 6 Temple Place, London, WC2R 2PG, UK
Military Writers Guild Resource List:
The MWG Board has put together a list of resources for MWG members as they take on writing projects. This list includes Scholastic/Commentary, Military Tactical/Branch Journals, Creative, Residencies and Mentorship, and Awards resources. The Resource List can be found on the MWG website at: https://www.militarywritersguild.org/mwg-resource-list .
Please share this newsletter and the Military Writers Guild socials/ website with others who you think would be interested in learning more! These platforms are the best way for potential new members to learn more and get in touch.
Opportunities:
The Strategy, Statecraft, & Technology: Changing Character of War Centre (SST:CCW) at Oxford has an opening for a Senior Research Fellow to join their team around January 2027. Learn more, including how to apply at: https://mailchi.mp/d627117fc913/upcoming-ccw-events-week-2-trinity-term-cyber-militia-morris-brandon-11041238?e=e6959f18d9
Applications due: 9am on 12 August 2026
For enquiries about the role, please contact Dr. Rob Johnson, SST-CCW Director at: robert.johnson@pmb.ox.ac.uk
The Consequence Forum is hosting several upcoming writing classes. See the class descriptions and other relevant information below.
Overview:
Consequence Forum has new writing classes coming up. Each is designed to help writers sharpen their craft, develop project ideas, and find new communities. We offer a sliding scale for all courses, as well as a reduced rate for those who cannot attend live but would like access to the recordings. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at info@consequenceforum.org.
To read the full description for each class or to register, visit https://consequenceforum.org/writing-classes.
Telling from the Edge of Conflict: Writing as Witness with Gloria Ogo
Memory is more than recollection—it is a powerful creative tool for bearing witness. This course invites fiction writers and poets to transform personal and collective memories of violence into nuanced, ethically grounded work. Through close readings, generative exercises, discussion, and optional workshop feedback, participants will explore voice, testimony, and representation while learning to portray trauma with care and complexity. Writers will leave with new work, practical craft strategies, and greater confidence writing toward truth rather than spectacle.
Gloria Ogo is an American-based Nigerian writer with several published novels and poetry collections. Her work has appeared in Eye to the Telescope, Brittle Paper, Spillwords Press, Metastellar, Gypsophila Magazine, Harpy Hybrid Review, Allegro Poetry Magazine, among others.
Online: Saturdays, August 8,15, & 22. 12-2pm ET.
The Retrospective Eye: A Nonfiction Class with R.M. Harper
Every memoir is written from two moments in time: the experience itself and the self looking back. This course explores how writers transform memory into compelling personal narrative through retrospection, point of view, and the tension between past and present selves. Through close readings, discussion, lectures, and generative writing, participants will develop new work while learning techniques to recreate lived experience and uncover the deeper meaning that memoir and creative nonfiction can reveal.
R.M. Harper is a genderqueer writer and US Navy veteran whose work explores the intersections of state power, storytelling, and identity. They earned an MFA from Saint Mary’s College and their writing has appeared in The New Ohio Review and elsewhere.
Online: Saturdays, August 15, 22, 29. 3-5pm ET.
Writing the Other: A Poetry Class with Bänoo Zan
What does it mean to write from another person’s perspective with empathy, imagination, and care? Through guided exercises, prompts, and discussion, this class invites writers to explore voices beyond their own lived experience, with a focus on persona poems and first-person narratives. Participants will examine the ethical and creative challenges of perspective-taking while developing original work that engages questions of justice, human rights, and shared humanity, leaving with new drafts and a deeper understanding of compassionate storytelling.
Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, and curator, with numerous published pieces and books including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. With Cy Strom, she is the co-editor of the anthology: Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution. She was given Life Membership in the League of Canadian Poets in 2024 and is the recipient of the 2025 Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award.
Online: Sunday, August 16. 2-4pm ET.
When Worlds Collide: Writing to Visual Art with Dr. Barbara Krasner
Explore the power of ekphrasis—the practice of writing in response to visual art—to create vivid, emotionally resonant work inspired by images of conflict, history, and human experience. Through timed image prompts and generative writing exercises, participants will produce multiple drafts, share their work in a supportive, strengths-based environment using the Amherst Writers & Artists method, and discover new creative possibilities. No art background is required, and writers of all genres and experience levels are welcome.
Barbara Krasner is an award-winning multi-genre author. She holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and a PhD in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Gratz College. Her work has appeared in more than seventy literary journals and she is the author of ten poetry collections, including the ekphrastic Poems of the Winter Palace,, The Night Watch, Insomnia: Poems after Lee Krasner,, and the forthcoming The Wanderers.
Online: Wednesdays, September 2,9,16, and 30. 6:30-8:30pm ET.
Sensory Details: Making Writing More Immediate with Gerri Brightwell
Bring your writing to life by learning how to immerse readers in the immediacy of a moment. Through close readings, guided writing exercises, and practical editing techniques, you’ll explore how carefully chosen sensory details create vivid, emotionally resonant scenes—even when writing about violence and conflict. Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, you’ll leave with new strategies for crafting compelling prose, eliminating unnecessary words, and making every moment feel immediate and unforgettable.
Gerri Brightwell is originally from southwest Britain. Her fourth novel, Turnback Ridge, was a finalist for the 2022 Foreword Indies Award. Her short work has appeared in many venues including The Best American Mystery Stories 2017, Alaska Quarterly Review, Raritan: A Quarterly Review, Copper Nickel, Redivider, and BBC Radio 4’s Opening Lines. She teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Online: Saturday, September 5. 2-3:30pm ET.
📰General Reminders/News:
NEW: Want MWG gear? Visit https://www.cafepress.com/shop/MilWritersGuild.
The submission form for member’s published works can now be found as a button on the website under the Membership page, labeled: Submission Form: Published Content for MWG Member Archive.
If there are enough submissions, posts will be made on Fridays each week.
Substack Subscriber’s chat: Visit the Substack subscribers chat to get in touch with other MWG members about the works promoted by MWG, chat about other MWG related information, and collaborate on future military affairs related projects.
🎙️The Pen and Sword Podcast is back! Check it out at:
📝Member Notes:
This is a new section we have added to the monthly newsletters, with updates from MWG members! If you have published a book, presented at a conference, or have upcoming events you would like to share with the MWG community, please reach out to us through the Contact Us page on the MWG website. Feel free to send photos of upcoming books or past events, written notes, or anything else you feel the wider MWG community would benefit from knowing and learning about. We look forward to hearing from members and sharing your accomplishments and upcoming events!
MWG member Dr. James Giordano has recently published an article in Neuroethics, along with Nicolas Berberich and Gordon Cheng. The article is titled: “Ethical Considerations Toward Harmonizing Human and Machine Agency in Embodied Neurotechnologies.”
Thank you for reading and feel free to reach out with any questions you have!