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United States Marine veteran Dewaine Farria gives himself a goal when he’s working on a first draft: write 250 words a day. It’s the same goal he had when crafting his debut novel, “Revolutions of All Colors.”

The book won Syracuse University Press and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families’ Veterans Writing Award. Farria, the first recipient of the award, discussed his book and read an excerpt during a virtual talk on Thursday, a day after Veterans Day. He was joined by Tobias Wolff, an award-winning writer and former SU faculty member.

Farria’s book follows three characters as they grapple with issues of race and sexuality and chronicles their experiences in the military and working overseas. Throughout his writing process, Farria worked to accurately and respectfully depict the settings, characters and history in his novel.

“The novel’s a really good example of something (where) definitely being a veteran is part of the story, but it is not the full story,” said Lisa Kuerbis, marketing coordinator for SU Press, in an interview. “It’s just one part of the characters in the novel, and it’s really about much more than that.”

The Veterans Writing Award, which SU Press created with IVMF, first opened for entries in 2018 as a way to further develop SU’s relationship with and existing support of veterans, Kuerbis said.

Veterans of color and women veterans were encouraged to enter the contest, which asked for works that presented military and veteran experiences from a new perspective. Farria’s novel deals with the experiences at the intersection of being a person of color and of serving in the military.

Farria read a few pages from his novel. Wolff complimented the author’s word usage, commending the back and forth dialogue between two characters in the novel.

The chat moved into Farria’s literary inspirations such as novelist James Baldwin, who is featured in the epigraph of “Revolutions of All Colors.” Early on in the writing process, Farria tried to emulate the style of episodic short stories that all fit together, he said.

Farria also built off of his own experiences in the military and working overseas. One of the settings in the novel is Kyiv, Ukraine, which Farria said had felt like a second home to him after his time there.

At the end of the discussion, the author took questions from attendees through the chat. Audience members asked Farria about what he’s currently reading and working on, and Wolff also chimed in to provide quick comments during the Q&A.

The award’s advisory board looks for authors who are U.S. veterans, active-duty personnel or their immediate family members. But the author’s writing doesn’t specifically have to be a “war story.”

“I think it’s easy to just kind of go about your life and not think of the people that are serving our country and how much they’re doing for us, both in wars and out of wars,” Kuerbis said. “(The award is) a great opportunity to give them a voice so that they can write about what it is to be serving the country and let other people know about it.”

Published on November 12, 2020 at 11:49 pm

Contact Abby: avpresso@syr.edu | @abbyvp08