Literary journals are a mainstay of American literary culture. They’ve existed since at least 1815, when the “North American Review” made its debut, and just four years later, “The Yale Review” became the first literary journal sponsored by a university. A hundred years later, literary journals and little magazines (i.e., independent, avant-garde literary journals) were beginning to define themselves in oppositional ways, with the “higher brow” literary journals often being housed within and/or affiliated with a university creative writing department. Today, there are more independent literary journals and zines – the DIY, underground cousin of the indie journal – than can be counted or tracked. From print to digital, people are telling their stories via their preferred genres, styles, and platforms.

As an independent publisher within academia, I’ve always straddled the line between “faculty editor” and “zinester-in-charge.” Accordingly, the literary journals that I’ve created with sponsorship from the university have evolved into venues for community-based literary and visual artists. In short, the curation of community-embedded publications has been my passion for the past two decades; thus, when the Office of Veteran and Military Academic Engagement (OVMAE) at Arizona State University (ASU) asked me if I would dedicate at least one issue of my community-facing literary journal to veterans’ stories, I eagerly accepted.

Rather than merely dedicating a single issue to veterans, I decided it was time to retire the ASU sponsored Phoenix-centric creative journal, “Write On, Downtown”(WOD) – which had had an invigorating 16-year run and featured the work of countless local creatives – and build something entirely new for the military-affiliated community. Thus, I recruited a veteran-student majoring in creative writing (Hannah Connor) and a veteran-poet from the community (AJ Baumel) to anchor the editorial team. WOD had evolved from a student-based writing journal into one that espoused a more traditional creative writing model and, eventually, into one that combined poetry, flash prose, and short profiles (think Humans of New York). Given the community enthusiasm that its final iteration had engendered, the inaugural editorial team agreed that “ISSUED: stories of service” would transfer the poetry/prose/profiles model into one with a military focus, allowing us to not only showcase the voices of veteran writers, but veterans doing extraordinary work in education, the arts, mental health, and the nonprofit sector.

After working for two semesters with Hannah, AJ, and a small team of undergraduate editors (Maja Pierce, an undergrad majoring in graphic design, and Michael Weaver and Suzanne Bigelow, both English majors), “ISSUED” launched its inaugural issue on May 4, 2023 at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix. The issue – which spans 64 pages, had a print run of 250 copies, and can be read in its entirety on our website – is rife with poetry, short prose, and profiles. It features an interview with Brian Turner, arguably one of the greatest living war poets in America today, as well as interviews with veterans working in higher education, mental health, comic art, storytelling, and artistic activism. The Virgina G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU co-sponsored Turner’s visit to the valley for the launch, and we welcomed three other veteran poets via Zoom, including Tonya Suther, Vincent Cooper, and Hugh Martin, who received his MFA in Poetry at ASU. The event was attended by current and former directors of OVMAE and the Pat Tillman Center, as well as veterans from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU, some of whom were also featured in the journal. In short, the launch was inspiring, and now that we had a tangible product, we were eager to increase our efforts to curate both a local and national body of veterans’ voices within our pages.

As someone who identifies as both a journal editor and a medical humanist, I’ve become increasingly motivated to create venues dedicated to narrative/poetic medicine in the literary marketplace, particularly publications dedicated to showcasing the stories of medically vulnerable populations. Ironically, when I was approached by OVMAE, I didn’t fully realize the potential of this journal, but as we prepare to curate our second issue (due out in May 2024), it’s become clear that “ISSUED” is a publication where we can combine the practice of narrative medicine with the products of narrative medicine.

Thus, our vision for the future of “ISSUED” is twofold: to continue to promote creative expression among veterans via the publication of poetry and short prose; and to infuse the journal with a focus on wellness, specifically, veteran wellness through storytelling and creative expression. Given that I also facilitate narrative/poetic medicine workshops for veterans through OVMAE at ASU (Verse for Vets) and at the Vet Center in Phoenix (Healing Words: a women’s writing workshop), the forthcoming issue of “ISSUED” will feature the work of both veteran-participants and mental health practitioners who encourage expressive writing.

In addition to narrative/poetic medicine, “ISSUED” hopes to highlight veterans who work across the complementary therapy spectrum, e.g. art therapy and nature therapy. Though there are numerous conference panels and papers dedicated to the efficacy of complementary therapies within veteran populations – the Veterans in Society conference, hosted by ASU in 2022, featured at least two panels on mental health and one on art-based therapies – there are few publications that house the breadth of this work—both the practice of narrative medicine with veterans and the products of narrative medicine by veterans – in a single volume.

Thus, “ISSUED” isn’t merely a literary journal. The poetry and prose housed in our pages are living examples of resilience, recovery, and hope, all of which can potentially encourage veterans to attend a narrative medicine workshop, or a poetry workshop, or a Trek for Vets event. Ultimately, we want “ISSUED” to be both a venue for veterans’ stories and part of the larger dialogue (and praxis) involving narrative medicine and veterans.

Article Topics

Military Friendly Institutions Research on Student Veterans Serving Military in HigherEd Veterans Academic Success Women Veterans Working as a Veteran in HigherEd Workplace Inclusion

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