This spring, The War Horse hosted our seventh writing seminar in our most unique setting yet—inside the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, formerly known as California’s San Quentin State Prison.

We helped give voice to the powerful stories of 18 incarcerated veterans, thanks to the generous support of donors to The War Horse.

The unofficial slogan of our writing seminars is to give the underserved and underrepresented an opportunity to tell their stories. We thought this overlooked population helped us truly achieve that mission.

Our Challenge

We knew the logistics would present a one-of-a-kind challenge. You don’t just rent a tranquil retreat center and book round-trip flights for veterans serving time in California’s oldest prison to attend a four-day intensive writing seminar. Instead, we brought the seminar inside San Quentin by partnering with the Pollen Initiative, a nonprofit that cultivates media centers at prisons. We obtained security clearances for our War Horse team and guests, including a former Columbia University journalism professor and award-winning journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Marshall Project. Together, we worked to help our 2024 War Horse Fellows find and shape their personal reflections that ranged from stories about their service to inner reflections of childhood and incarceration.

Our History

Since 2017, The War Horse has hosted six writing seminars for veterans and military families. The 73 fellows from those seminars have written 79 personal narratives for The War Horse about topics ranging from mental health and suicide to school shootings and gender issues. Past fellows have gone on to publish memoirs and reporting projects with USA Today, CNN, The New York Times, and others.

Our 2024 Cohort

The 2024 War Horse Fellows represented the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps and brought a remarkable breadth of experiences. This was among the most diverse cohorts to date, and we are proud to increase the number of male reflection writers. Historically, our writing fellows have been predominantly women.

Regal Robinson, a Navy veteran who has spent more than two decades incarcerated, wrote about one of his earliest memories—standing in a boxer’s stance on his mother’s porch in Detroit at age six as a tank turned its guns on his family’s home. It was the early 1960s; the National Guard had been called into his city to “put down a riot of such duration and ‘violence’ that only armored vehicles could travel down the public streets,” he wrote.

Steve Drown, who served in the Navy and has been incarcerated for 46 years, wrote about his lifelong search for his father’s approval. Todd Winkler, a former Air Force fighter pilot, shared his journey of becoming an addiction counselor following his incarceration. Navy veteran Thomas Arends wrote about the pride of serving on a submarine and the grief of learning it had been decommissioned: “Her metal skin recycled into …disposable razors, her heart—the remains of her nuclear source—now buried in a graveyard until the last traces of her energy decays away.”

On the first day of the seminar, a few members sported the bright blue ball caps with gold letters “VGSQ”—Veterans Group at San Quentin. Each day, the number of fellows proudly wearing those caps grew. It was exciting to see their veteran pride rising throughout the week. However, all those VGSQ caps raised a question that kept coming up among our group: Why does America have such a large incarcerated veteran population to begin with? There are more than 100 veterans at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and at least 5,000 in California’s prison population.

Why San Quentin

The rehabilitation center is home to one of the country’s largest prison newspapers, the San Quentin News, and other media projects such as Ear Hustle, a Peabody award-winning podcast on prison life.

About 35,000 copies of the newspaper are distributed throughout the California prison system. During our visit, we learned how the incarcerated staff is working with the Pollen Initiative to digitize their newspaper and feature a section in Spanish to serve more readers and supporters. At the end of our visit, we received the most recent issue of the San Quentin News and the Spanish issue of the Wall City magazine.

Our Curriculum

Our team tailored the curriculum to the unique needs of our incoming writers.

David Chrisinger led his seventh War Horse Writing Retreat, and fellows rated his instruction as “absolutely three thumbs up.”

“As Dave gave his own story. I feel I was encouraged to do the same. Giving voice to things I stuffed away,” one fellow shared. “They needed to come out so I could let them be free, in turn, they free me.”

“The feedback was transformational,” wrote another fellow. “I was able to see my writing in a different light. The environment was inclusive and I felt comfortable to share my story.”

Dave had an inspiring partner alongside him for this retreat: Karen Stabiner, a former Columbia University journalism professor and former instructor to The War Horse founder Thomas Brennan. Fellows described her as “the most influential, helpful individual” at the seminar. Another described how Karen “really opened my eyes and steered my paper into the direction I had in mind. I was honored that she took the time out to help me.”

The facility’s restrictions prevented us from scheduling some of the unique stress-reducing activities we typically schedule into our seminars, such as goat yoga. But we were still allowed to share The War Horse-branded notebooks, folders, pens, and a cup along with chips and granola bars. One veteran shared he had not had lime-flavored Lays potato chips since 2007.

“The name tags were a great touch, as well as daily snacks. The swag (folder/notebook/cup) are things I will cherish for a very long time.”  said Randy Sherman, one of the fellows.

The Rehabilitation Center allowed us to continue our standard of compensating our Writing Seminar participants. Fellows each received $300 deposited into their facility accounts. These stipends are subject to restitution for the state of California at 50 to 55%.

Our Guest Mentors

The War Horse Fellows worked one on one alongside guest writing mentors, including Kurtis Lee, a Pulitzer Prize winner from The New York Times; Scott Wilson, a national correspondent from the Washington Post; and Shoshana Walter, an investigative reporter from The Marshall Project.

Appreciation for the partnerships was mutual.

“Kurtis allowed me to be free to express my truth to the extent that I was comfortable to share. Nothing more, nothing less,” one fellow wrote. “There was a sense of balance as I shared my story.” 

For Kurtis, the experience was “extremely powerful.”

“I kept thinking about how much the experience reminded me of a college classroom—diverse opinions, deep intellectual conversations, reflections on life, and senses of optimism about the future. The men at San Quentin were very introspective and showed empathy to one another, as well as all of the mentors. In the weeks since our time at San Quentin, one word consistently comes to mind when reflecting on the whole experience: gratitude.”

A fellow praised Scott’s mentorship as a “life-changing factor” in his writing process. Another shared how Scott advised him not to use the word “incarcerated. He told me that ‘in a clinical setting, that might go well, but in telling my story, use words that allow the reader to enjoin to me.’”

Scott called the “The War Horse’s first outreach into the prison system … extraordinary in its ambition and effect.”

“Over four remarkable days, 18 men turned their haunting stories into memoir, growing to better understand not only the writing process but also themselves. The seminar’s design avoided the pitfalls of what I have found in other short courses, which often leave participants with knowledge but no clear path for how to apply it. The first two days were built around teaching, the next two around doing. 

“The culmination unfolded over several afternoon hours in San Quentin’s still chapel, through tears at times, in joy at others, as the men read their work aloud. It was one of the most moving, profound and inspiring experiences I have witnessed—of any kind. 

“We emerged into the prison courtyard at the end of our own shared dramatic arc, a narrative technique taught early in the seminar, changed characters in our own stories from just four days earlier. I’m hoping The War Horse model can be replicated in other state prisons as California, in particular, reaches for its long-stated goal of true rehabilitation within what had been a punishment-first system. I’d be proud to be a part of that process. It was a privilege to be a part of this one.”

Fellows also appreciated the chance to learn from an “insightful investigative reporter” like Shoshana, especially one who covers the criminal justice system.

Shoshana said she felt like she was the student: “I think I learned as much or more from them as they might have learned from me. It was moving to hear their life stories and how they are connecting past to present. And they truly learned! During my one-on-ones, I heard several people quoting from their writing teacher. It was truly a privilege to be there.”

The Feedback

All 18 members of our 2024 cohort told us The War Horse provided adequate resources to deal with the difficult issues we discussed and that our team presented the material in a way that was sensitive to their experiences. They shared strong feedback about how the seminar changed them.

• Before the workshop, more than two-thirds of 2024 War Horse Fellows reported that they did not know people who could help them publish their stories and wanted to keep their stories to themselves. After the writing seminar, 89% of fellows felt confident they had gained mentors they could approach for help.
• Before attending, 67% of fellows believed they couldn’t convey what they wanted to say or didn’t have the ability to share their story. After the workshop, 83% of fellows reported a stronger ability to tell their story and left feeling good or very good about telling their story.
• Before attending The War Horse Seminar, 67% of the attendees reported that they didn’t believe their stories were important. Following our week together, 89% of the cohort believed their stories were important and wanted to tell them.

Our Takeaway

The War Horse’s Randee Howard, who leads the organizing and planning of our Writing Seminars, said she felt a special appreciation after seeing the impact of our week at San Quentin. While an undergraduate at Columbia University’s School of General Studies, she volunteered for a nonfiction writing workshop with incarcerated women at Rikers Island through Columbia’s Center for Justice. Randee said she felt a similar sense of satisfaction and pride from this week.

“My past volunteering with incarcerated women was the most rewarding experience in my undergraduate studies and inspired me to advocate for a writing seminar for incarcerated veterans,” Randee said. “It showed me firsthand how connection to the outside world helps to reduce recidivism. I knew they would have powerful stories to tell. This cohort did not disappoint, and I am excited for our audience to read their stories.”