Examining the Motives for Veterans Writing Workshops: Is It Clinical, Political, Instructional, or All the Above?

This paper surveys some of the issues involved with forming a veterans writing group. There appear to be three reasons for starting a veterans writing group: therapy, politics, or instruction, and these intentions often merge. Through interviews with administers and facilitators of veterans writing groups, I examine these motives in an attempt to show college English teachers the challenges they could face when they move beyond the instructional into the clinical or political.