‘Twenty Years’ Poems Inspire Week of War Remembrances

When Anaheim poet John Harrell decided to donate nearly 300 copies of his book of war poems to Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, he says, he simply wanted other people to benefit from what he had written.

Harrell’s 1992 book, “Twenty Years,” was his first collection of poems and won him and the book’s illustrator, Philip L. (Moki) Martin of Coronado, a gold medal in the 1994 National Veterans Creative Arts Festival sponsored by the Veterans Administration.

Harrell, a Vietnam veteran, viewed the donation as a way of paying back the college where he took poetry-writing classes after retiring from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1989 after 23 years in the service.

But Harrell had no idea that his donation would inspire the college to sponsor a weeklong series of on-campus events that will explore the Vietnam War and the contributions made by Southeast Asians and the era’s veterans.

“20 Years: The Vietnam Experience,” which began Monday with a historical perspective of Vietnam by University of Saigon professor Pham Cao Duong, continues through Sunday, the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, with a salute to those whose lives were affected by the war.

“It’s not a celebration of the end of the war,” says Harrell, 55. “It’s an event to recognize people who were involved in the war directly and indirectly, how it affected them, how it affected the Vietnamese community here and what they’ve contributed since they’ve been here.”

Harrell, Martin and their publisher, Lightning Publications of Fullerton, agreed late last year to donate to the college 274 hard-bound, limited edition copies of “Twenty Years,” which have been signed by Harrell and Martin ($29.95). Also donated were 10 copies of a limited edition of the book bound in leather and featuring additional art and poetry ($45.95). Proceeds from sales of the books, available in the campus bookstore, will be divided equally between the college and the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., a nonprofit social and cultural services agency founded in 1978.

As part of the week’s events, Harrell will join poets Bart Edelman, Quang Pham and Vien Linh in a poetry reading from noon to 2 p.m Thursday in Room U-201 in the campus center. Their readings will be followed by an open reading and a question-and-answer session.

Other events include:

Today, from noon to 2:30 p.m., one panel will offer the perspectives of immediate and extended family members who served in Vietnam, and another will feature male and female veterans from Korea, Vietnam and the United States.

On Wednesday, from noon to 2 p.m., student members of the Vietnamese Club will conduct panels focusing on personal experiences of life in Vietnam before 1975, their life in the United States and the challenges they’ll face in the future.

The week also includes a display of Martin’s original artwork from “Twenty Years,” a film festival of Vietnam War movies and a display of a representative field medical facility used during the war. (Harrell was executive officer, in 1969-70, of an Americal Division medical company, which received casualties on their way to a larger hospital.)

“I’d like to see people come away (from the week’s events) with a better understanding about what a powerful impact that whole time had on everybody, and I’d like them to come away feeling better about themselves,” Harrell says.

“I think all of us would like to see this event as part of a healing process.”

For more information about “20 Years: The Vietnam Experience,” call the college at (714) 564-6093.

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Book Signings. Raymond Feist (“Shadow of a Dark Queen”) will sign at noon Wednesday at the UC Irvine campus bookstore. . . . Thomas Keneally (“River Town”) will sign at 1 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. . . . Barbara Hambly (“The Children of the Jedi”) will sign at 1 p.m. Saturday at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange. . . . Kathleen Harrington (“Promise Me”) will sign from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Waldenbooks in the Brea Mall. . . . Mike Blake (“Baseball’s Bad Hops and Lucky Bounces”) will sign from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Waldenbooks in Westminster Mall. . . . Jesus Trevino (“The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories”) will read and sign at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Real Bookstore, 17350 E. 17th St., Tustin.

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Poetry Readings. An open poetry reading will be held at the Laguna Poets meeting at 8 p.m. Friday at Upchurch-Brown Booksellers, 384 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach. Admission: $3. . . . Gary Tomlinson will read at 8 p.m. Monday at Koo’s Arts Cafe, 1505 N. Main St., Santa Ana.

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Writing Workshop. Author Patricia McFall (“Night Butterfly”) will conduct a mystery writing workshop from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. Sunday at a private residence in Mission Viejo. Fee: $75. For information, call McFall at (714) 897-9907.

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Used Books. Used-book sales will be held Friday through Sunday at the Newport Center Library, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach; and Friday, Saturday and Monday at the Huntington Beach Central Library, 7111 Talbert Ave.

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Author Tea. Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey (“A Woman of Independent Means”), Alan Zweibel (“Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner, A Sort of Love Story”), Greg Bills (“Consider This Home”) and Linda Gray Sexton (“Searching for Mercy Street, My Journey Back to My Mother Ann Sexton”) will discuss their books at the National Kidney Foundation’s annual authors’ tea at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Sutton Place Hotel (formerly Le Meridien), 4500 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. Cost: $35. For reservations, call (714) 962-7675.

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Author Dinner. University of California President Jack Peltason will be the featured speaker at the 30th annual Orange County Authors Recognition Dinner at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Irvine Marriott Hotel. Cost: $30. For reservations, call (714) 824-5300.

The event, sponsored by the Friends of the UC Irvine Library, recognizes county writers who have had a book published during the preceding year.