The psychological toll of military combat was underscored a year ago by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which found suicide rates more than 20 percent higher for America’s veterans than non-veterans. The Veterans Writing Workshop is designed to address those “invisible wounds,” offering a creative outlet for sharing thoughts and experiences or for exploring original ideas.

The first of five weekly sessions at the Library’s Plaza Branch opens with a public presentation featuring Iraq War veteran and acclaimed author and poet Brian Turner. He joins Rita Brock, senior vice president of moral injury programs for the nonprofit Volunteers of America, and George Dent, a trauma/PTSD psychologist, in discussing PTSD, moral injury (the inability to reconcile wartime actions with a personal moral code) and other traumas and how writing and other creative arts can help in recovery.

Presented by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and Missouri Humanities Council. Co-sponsored by the Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Arts Council, Mid-Continent Public Library, Moral Injury Association of America, and The Writers Place.