EVENT: Holmstedt to Speak on Women in Combat Friday Night

Kirsten Holmstedt, acclaimed author of two non-fiction books on women in combat and the challenges they face after returning home, will speak at William & Mary's Ewell Recital Hall on Friday, Oct.1, at 7 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

Joining Holmstedt, who is W&M's Donaldson Writer-in-Residence for 2010-2011, will be Army Specialist Elainena Filion, a retired combat veteran who served in Iraq in 2005-2006.

Holmstedt's books – Band of Sisters and The Girls Come Marching Home – chronicle the lives of dozens of women who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Critics have hailed them as “lyrical, visceral and potent.”

The 7 p.m. program will be followed by a question-and-answer session and a reception. Holmstedt's appearance is the inaugural event of the English Department's Patrick Hayes Writer's Series for the academic year.

For further information about the event, please contact Professor Ava Coibion (ajcoibion@wm.edu.)