The Brown University Department of English and Creative Writing Program hosted a conference on "Writing Vietnam" from April 21 to April 23, 1999.
Nationally recognized writers of fiction, memoir, poetry, journalism, and biography read from and discussed their works based on their experiences in the Vietnam War.
Conference events
- Vet to Vet: Starting to Tell the Story
- an open dialogue among veterans, including nurses, about writing their
stories.
- Tim O'Brien's keynote address
- Readings by the participating writers.
- Forum - the writers discuss their experience in Vietnam, the ways they have written about it, what they have learned as they have tried different genres, and the legacy of Vietnam in their lives and writing now.
- Writing the American War - an open dialogue among members of the Southeast Asian community, about writing the stories of the war and its legacy in their lives.
- Exhibit of photographs by Rhode Island photographer Tom Morrissey from his book Between the Lines: Photographs from the National Vietnam Veterans War Memorial: Washington, DC. 1983-1999.
- Tim O'Brien's keynote address
Additional material
- Biographies of participants.
- Conference Schedule
- "Lost to Vietnam" by Professor Elizabeth Taylor.
- "Engaging the Dragon" an essay by conference attendee David Morse
- Snapshots taken at the conference by Marisa Catalina Casey ('00).
- Writing Vietnam the Brown University English Course which inspired the conference.
- A student's view of the course, by Justine Kenna '00
- "Family" short fiction by John Shaw, who served in South Vietnam with the U.S. Navy from March 1968 until February 1972. Shaw is now a freelance writer and lives in Cranston, R.I.
- "Lanny" by John Shaw
- "War Stories" by John Shaw
- A poem by Jeffrey Page
- A Short Story by Phuc Le, Brown University '97
- Conference Schedule
The conference was organized by Dr. Elizabeth S. Taylor, Co-Director of the Expository Writing Program in the English Department.
This Web site was produced by Alice Lovejoy, a student in Dr. Taylor's Course "Writing Vietnam," and by Giovanna Roz, Sara Grady and Claire Iltis at Brown University's Scholarly Technology Group.