Everyone has a story. But stories don’t tell themselves — even people with truly great ones often don’t make time to tell them. 

Writer and editor Luke Rolfes discusses what he calls “holding space” for getting those stories out there to family, friends, or more formal audiences. He talks about the types of space it takes to produce a story, how to get it, and what happens when veterans, social workers, teachers, parents, children, seniors, trauma survivors — all of us — have that space. 

Rolfes is an assistant professor at Northwest Missouri State University, coeditor of GreenTower Press, editor of the veteran anthology Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors in collaboration with Missouri Humanities, and author of Sleep Lake, Impossible Naked Life, and Flyover Country. 

A follow-up workshop takes place the following day. Kansas City Veterans Write Workshop: My Space, My Story is from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the Plaza Branch for veterans, family members, and their allies. Some stories from this workshop will be included in the Kansas City Veterans Write Readers’ Theater event on Saturday, November 1.