The next Electric Mermaid live reading event at Char’s Landing in Port Alberni on Wednesday, June 28 will feature Denman Island author Bill Engleson.
Engleson is an author and retired child protection social worker who was born in Powell River, raised in Nanaimo and spent his first year of life trapped aboard his parents’ leaky fish boat. He resided in New Westminster for most of his adult years, retiring to Denman Island in 2004.
He writes fiction, essays, poetry, reviews and letters to the editor. He has been writing most of his life and his first couple of poetic efforts were printed in his mid-teens in the now sadly defunct Nanaimo Daily Free Press. He self-published his first novel, Like a Child to Home, in 2013. He released his second book through Silver Bow Publishing, a collection of humorous literary essays titled Confessions of an Inadvertently Gentrifying Soul in October 2016. He is working on several projects including a prequel to his first novel, Drawn Towards the Sun, and a long simmering mystery, A Short Rope on a Nasty Night. His story “Fidelity” recently took second place in Geist’s short long-distance writing contest.
Engleson has also had the privilege over the past few years of writing reviews for the British Columbia Review, including books by Hugh Greer, Daniel Wood, Luke Whittell, two by Jack Knox (Opportunity Knox and Hard Knox) and Mike McCardell, as well as contributing an essay on the Denman Island Dora Drinkwater Library.
While many of his longer projects are taking their own good time, he has just published his latest novel, The Life of Gronsky, a whirlwind of a creation that took almost no time at all to write. Well, perhaps a tad longer than that.
With host and emcee Derek Hanebury’s literary guidance, feature Bill Engleson, plus a host of authors through the open mic, Electric Mermaid: Live Reads promises to keep poetry and prose fans engaged. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and open mic is from 6-8 p.m. Admission is $10. See www.charslanding.com/events to pre-register for the readers’ list and to select the optional Zoom link.