SAN QUENTIN REHABILITATION CENTER (formerly known as San Quentin Prison)
San Quentin, California
April 15-18, 2024
Tens of thousands of military veterans are incarcerated across the United States. During their time behind bars, they lose access to VA health care and mental health services, and upon their release, they face unique transition issues. They often lose the right to vote that they once swore an oath to defend.
During their incarceration, these veterans also lose their voice. In April, The War Horse partnered with San Quentin News to host our Writing Seminar for Incarcerated Veterans to help share the stories of this often-forgotten segment of the veteran population. Whether their story explores their incarceration, military service, or their journey to regaining a sense of purpose, The War Horse is proud to publish their stories.
Meet the Fellows
Thomas Joseph Arends
Thomas Joseph Arends often describes himself as a simple Kansas farm boy. He was raised in a family of seven children and worked in machinery with his father and three of his brothers. In his spare time, he liked to tinker with electronics and learn how to make broken components work. His older brother joined the Navy and trained in electronics, and Arends followed his path. Arends is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
J. Lee Covarrubias
J. Lee Covarrubias has endured internal states of annihilation, discovery, and redemption in the last seven years of his incarceration at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. He looks forward to developing his self-worth and purpose by serving others as a math guide, fiction writer, and tabletop game promoter. He enjoys mediation, running, and tennis. He is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Steve Drown
Steven D. Drown is a 74-year-old Navy veteran in his 46th year of incarceration. One of the original re-forming members of the Veterans Group of San Quentin, he is also a part of the Coalition for Justice Program. Drown is active with the Marin Shakespeare Drama group and is currently in rehearsals for “Titus Andronicus,” performing the lead role of Titus. He is also one of the founding members of the award-winning podcast “Uncuffed.” He is also a 2024 Writing Seminar fellow.
Donald Edge
Donald Edge served in the United States Marines from 1975 to 1979 and was honorably discharged. Although he faced enormous trials and made mistakes, he also planted seeds of human kindness while placing principles above personalities. He desires to inspire and encourage others, make positive contributions, and embrace resilience. He is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Steven “Wally” Joyner
Steven Joyner is a retired Navy chief hospital corpsman with 32 years of military service. He’s a lifelong learner whose degrees include a Bachelor of Science in biology with a minor in chemistry. He has worked as an EMT, combat medic, clinical laboratory technician, and as a biology and a toxicology technician. He currently works as a peer literacy mentor at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center to help others achieve literacy in English and to complete their GEDs. He is also a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Raymond Melberg
Raymond Melberg joined the military in 1967. He spent 23 years in the Air Force followed by another 23 years working in corporate risk management in the insurance industry. His life has been fulfilled by his 56-year marriage, three grown children, and six grandchildren. Melberg is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Juan Moreno Haines
Juan Moreno Haines is an award-winning journalist incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. He was a senior editor at San Quentin News and is now editor-in-chief of Solitary Watch. Haines is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, receiving its Silver Heart Award in 2017 for being “a voice for the voiceless.” He is also a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Ruben Perez
Ruben Perez was born in southern Texas, the fourth of five children. His father spent four years in the Marine Corps. That, combined with his extended family’s comprehensive military service, instilled in Ruben a sense of patriotism and inspired his own service. Ruben spent 17 years in the Marine Corps Reserves, deploying to Iraq in 2003 where he was a liaison officer between Combat Service Support Battalion 17 and Engineering Support Battalion 6. He is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Regal Robinson
Regal Robinson served in the U.S. military and has spent more than two decades incarcerated. He has been featured in Humans of San Quentin and likes to reach others through writing and music. You can listen to his suicide prevention song here and learn more about him here. Over the years, Regal has learned to face himself and the choices he’s made. His mantra is, “The enemy is me.” He is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Mark Stanley-Bey
Mark Stanley-Bey served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. He has been inspired by and involved in art for much of his life. He studied graphic illustration at Los Angeles Trade Tech and went to work for a graphics art company. His artwork has been featured in several exhibitions, including Meet Us Quickly With Your Mercy: Painting for Justice at the Museum of the African Diaspora. He is a 2024 Writing Seminar fellow.
Noah Winchester
Noah Winchester served in the Marine Corps from 2002 to 2006. Though he has made many mistakes in life, he has grown from his struggles and believes his story is still being written. Winchester likes to serve and be of service to others. If he could define himself in one word, it would be “veteran.” He is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Todd Winkler
Todd Winkler graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and flew F-16 aircraft out of Misawa, Japan. After the military, he worked in project innovation in the medical device industry. Winkler enjoys writing short stories of speculative fiction with a focus on political and social science fiction set in near-future dystopian societies. His literary influences include George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, and Ursula K. LeGuin. He is a 2024 War Horse fellow.
Meet the Mentors
The War Horse is proud to continue the tradition of bringing award-winning journalists, world-class editors, and industry professionals together to help mentor the next generation of military writers. While in session at the in-person seminar event, fellows had access to instruction, mentorship, and support from these generous individuals intent on sharing their time and talent with our cohort.
Karen Stabiner
Journalist
Karen Stabiner is a journalist and author of narrative nonfiction who for three years was the West Coast editor of The Counter, a nonprofit digital newsroom; her work contributed to a 2021 SABEW award for general excellence. Her books include “Generation Chef,” about a young chef opening his first restaurant; “To Dance with the Devil: The New War on Breast Cancer,” a New York Times Notable Book, and her personal favorite, “My Girl: Adventures With a Teen in Training.” Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Eater LA, Columbia Journalism Review, The New Yorker, Gourmet (a James Beard award finalist), Saveur, Vogue, and Mother Jones.
Karen spent 10 years as an adjunct professor in the M.S. program at Columbia University Journalism School, where she created a class in food writing and taught reporting and feature writing.
Kurtis Lee
Journalist
Kurtis Lee is an economics correspondent based in Los Angeles. Before joining The New York Times in 2022, he worked as a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, where he spent eight years traveling the country and filing dispatches about gun violence, income inequality, and race in America. Lee was a part of The Denver Post staff that won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting.
Scott Wilson
Journalist
Scott Wilson worked for 26 years at The Washington Post, most recently as a senior national correspondent covering California and the American west. He previously served as The Post’s national editor, chief White House correspondent, and deputy assistant managing editor for foreign news. Before that he was The Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief; Middle East correspondent based in Amman, Jordan; and Andean bureau chief based in Bogotá, Colombia. He has received awards and citations from the Overseas Press Club and the Inter American Press Association for his work abroad. He also won the Aldo Beckman Memorial Award given by the White House Correspondents’ Association and the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency for his coverage of the Obama administration. He was part of a Post team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism. He lives in his childhood hometown of Santa Barbara, California, where he runs a weekly reading and writing group for inmates at the county jail.Scott Wilson worked for 26 years at The Washington Post, most recently as a senior national correspondent covering California and the American west. He previously served as The Post’s national editor, chief White House correspondent, and deputy assistant managing editor for foreign news. Before that he was The Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief; Middle East correspondent based in Amman, Jordan; and Andean bureau chief based in Bogotá, Colombia. He has received awards and citations from the Overseas Press Club and the Inter American Press Association for his work abroad. He also won the Aldo Beckman Memorial Award given by the White House Correspondents’ Association and the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency for his coverage of the Obama administration. He was part of a Post team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism. He lives in his childhood hometown of Santa Barbara, California, where he runs a weekly reading and writing group for inmates at the county jail.
Robert Rosenthal
CEO of The Center for Investigative Reporting
Robert Rosenthal is the CEO emeritus of The Center for Investigative Reporting and an award-winning journalist who has worked with The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Rosenthal worked for 22 years at the Inquirer, starting as a reporter and eventually becoming its executive editor in 1998. Robert worked as an editorial assistant on the Pulitzer-Prize winning Pentagon Papers Project and has also won the Overseas Press Club Award for magazine writing and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished foreign correspondence, and he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in international reporting. Rosenthal was a Pulitzer Prize judge four times and has been an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate Schools of Journalism. In 2018 he was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists for his “extraordinary contributions to the field of journalism.”
Shoshana Walter
Journalist
Shoshana Walter is an investigative reporter for The Marshall Project and the author of “Untreated,” a forthcoming book from Simon and Schuster on the country’s addiction treatment system. Her reporting has examined abuse and exploitation in addiction treatment programs, in the marijuana and armed guard industries, and in the child welfare system. She uncovered how court-mandated treatments for drug addiction turned thousands of people into an unpaid, shadow workforce for some of the country’s largest corporations—reporting that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and which led to the popular investigative podcast “American Rehab.” Her most recent investigation, in collaboration with The New York Times magazine, showed how hospitals have reported thousands of women to child protective services for taking prescribed medications during pregnancy, resulting in authorities taking newborns and putting them in foster care. Her reporting has been honored with the Livingston Award for National Reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors medal, the Edward R. Murrow award, and the Knight Award for Public Service, among others.
