My father prayed for peace for this world for nearly his whole life. Earlier this month, he found it for himself. He was surrounded by family in our home, with a dog in his lap faithfully guiding him onward.
A memorial service will be held next month in Kansas.
As noted in earlier posts, my essay, “Secondhand,” was recently published in New Letters. Since publication in the print journal, we’ve worked together to make the full text available online. You can now read the essay here: Secondhand. It was important to me that this piece, in particular, be made as easily accessible as possible.
Additionally, as a follow-up to the essay, New Letters has a Special Feature wherein I answer some questions elaborating on the context and craft of the piece. It also includes some of my photography from our return trip to Vietnam with my father, John Musgrave. The feature can be found here: Getting Ahold of the Heart.
Lastly, in not-my-writing-news, my father’s memoir is now available for preorder. I recommend it for a whole host of reasons, perhaps most of all because it’s a really good book that has important things to tell us all about war and the costs we pay to wage it. The Education of Corporal John Musgrave.
Thank you to all who tuned in live to view the program “Marines Return to Vietnam” via the Dole Institute of Politics. Given 2020, and my father’s allergic reaction to modern technology, this was the first time I got to ‘see’ my father since December (2019).
For anyone who may have missed the program or who wants to view it again and/or share it with others, the Dole Institute has created a permanent recording of it on their Youtube channel. I have embedded the video below or you can visit the link directly at: Marines Return to Vietnam (on Youtube).
The spring and summer of 2018 have been more focused on creating and submitting proposals for events and projects as they have been about actual writing. And as such, I’ve had little to show, publication-wise, for the year, but I’ve been able to create and participate in more events with my community here in Tulsa. That may not inflate my sense of writer-legitimacy, but I think it soothes the soul by bringing meaningful work to audiences who may or may not otherwise have access to it.
That said, another of the projects I’ve been preparing for has been announced and this one is near to my heart.
After Action Reports is a joint reading/workshop for veterans and their families that I will be facilitating with my father, John Musgrave (recently featured in the Ken Burns Documentary The Vietnam War). This reading comes from two sources: my father’s writing (available here), which has always been a means of healing and processing for him after returning from Vietnam; and my strange relationship to his war, having grown up both utterly disconnected from it and yet intimately shaped by it. After Action Reports hopes to offer tools for how to make writing a viable tool for for veterans and their families, through the combined perspectives of a Marine Infantryman and his adult, civilian son.
For more information, including time, location, and dates of the event, please see the official announcement from the McKeon Center for Creativity.
Dan Musgrave 