The South Dakota Humanities Council is sponsoring a storytelling contest for veterans that will culminate with an awards ceremony at the South Dakota Festival of Books Oct. 1-3 in Deadwood.

As past and present service members around the country are honored on Veterans Day 2020, the South Dakota Humanities Council is proud to celebrate South Dakota veterans by announcing the winners of the 2020 Veterans Story Contest.

The 2019 Veterans Story Contest invited past and current service members who live in South Dakota to submit their stories in written or video formats. The resulting entries were memorable.

Brian Turner has been, among other things, a DJ, an English teacher and a pickler, a bass guitar instructor and a soldier: he spent seven years in the Army, with deployments as an infantry team leader in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq.

Submissions are being accepted through Aug. 15 for the Veterans Story Contest, which is open to veterans or current service members of any branch of the United States military currently living in South Dakota.

The winner of the second annual SDHC Veterans Writing Prize wrote his essay through tears, still shaken by a 30-year old trauma.

Robert Olen Butler’s military service in Vietnam informs much of his most recognized writing.

In August of 1969, a year after leaving his home in Worthington, Minn. for basic training and life-threatening duty in war-torn Vietnam, Tim O’Brien was finally sent to the rear.

The 2017 Festival will feature a strong lineup of Veteran authors and an opportunity for aspiring Veteran writers to show the professionals what they can do.

"The Reunion" by James R. Teller won the 2016 Veterans Writing Prize, coordinated by the South Dakota Humanities Council.