University of Dubuque
11/04/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/04/2025 15:22
Archway Reading and Lecture Series to Host Mental Health Nurse, Veteran, and Poet Jessi Atherton
DUBUQUE, Iowa - The Archway Reading and Lecture Series at the University of Dubuque will host a reading and discussion on campus by psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, veteran, and poet Jessi Atherton, MSN, CNP, at 6:30 p.m. Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11, 2025, in the Multicultural Student Center, Peter and Susan Smith Welcome Center.
The event is free and open to the public. It will include a question-and-answer session.
Atherton's writing touches on lived experiences and themes of motherhood, military, mental health, grief, healing, and humanity. She is a 2023 Pat Tillman Scholar and US Army veteran who served as a logistics specialist with additional duties as a combat lifesaver in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Atherton received an honorable discharge after an injury in the country. Her first full collection of military poems, The Time War Takes, debuted in April 2023 and received honorable mention in Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole Inaugural Biennial Award for Distinguished Book in Veterans Studies in 2024 and made Community of Literary Magazines and Presses must read for Women's History Month in 2024. The collection of poetry explores themes of memory, resilience, and healing.
Atherton's work has been published with Nodin Press, The Cuddy Foundation, Iliad Press, McGregor Publishing, the International Library of Poetry, and Middle West Press. She is a Minnesota Humanities Center 2019 Veterans Voices awardee, a member and facilitator of Warrior Writers, a board member of the League of Minnesota Poets, and the Minnesota Assistant Counsel for Veterans.
A Minnesota-based mental health nurse who recently graduated as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, Atherton is active in veterans and women’s mental health as well as suicide prevention.
Copies of Atherton's books will be available for purchase.
The Archway Reading and Lecture Series is presented by the Office of Academic Affairs and Department of English at UD.
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