Blue Nostalgia: A Journal of Post-Traumatic Growth | ISSN 2332-0788

Blue Nostalgia: A Journal of Post-Traumatic Growth consists of works produced by veterans interested in exploring not only trauma, but what comes after. This first volume, written by those who joined a Military Experience and the Arts workshop in fall 2013, tells the story of living through trauma in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia alongside the often (and conveniently) overlooked tales of those wounded by Military Sexual Trauma or during service outside of combat zones. More importantly, in the wake of those conflicts, crimes, and omissions, the authors explain what worked and what didn’t on their individual roads to recovery. None of the authors claim to be completely healed. Such narratives would eschew the truth of a fragmentary healing process in favor of a neat, but fictional package that does little to educate those unaware of the need to grow and adapt to the new self created by trauma. Instead, each story in this volume is one of growth, survival, and speaking the unspeakable. The authors and editors hope that it will educate those who have not served about the battles that continue after the last shots are fired and speak to those who have served in a way that tells them they are not alone.

Download Volume 1 as a PDF here. (Recommended) 

Click on any title below to download individual works:

Front Matter & Table of Contents

Introduction: On Nostalgia
— Joseph R. Miller

The Looking Glass
—David Ervin [NEW: Listen to Audio Recording]

“That’s good, Conn, come on back”
—Michael Conn

PTSD from Military Sexual Trauma
—Heather Littles

My Reason
— Robert Loughhead

No Ejection Attempt
— Susan Bechtold

The Terrible Moment that Defines Me
— Joseph R. Miller

A Note from the Veterans’ PTSD Project Founder
— Virginia Cruse

Cover Artist Bio
— Ron Whitehead