Join the BC Federation of Writers on Tuesday, February 22 at 7pm?for?Regional Spotlight: Comox Valley Writers Society?with host?Meaghan Hackinen. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a link will be sent to you. When it’s time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Digital Doors Open at 655pm!
Terrance James?(host): Dr. Terrance James is a retired educator and rehabilitation consultant. He is author of books on: Prader-Willi syndrome, educational topics, local history, and family history. He has two biographies coming out in 2022: Where His Thumb Led (Poplar Publishing) and Sasquatch Discovered: The Biography of Dr. John Bindernagel (Hancock House). He has been with the Comox Valley Writers Society since 2006, an executive member since 2010, and has served several terms as President. He is currently writing The History of the Comox Valley Writers Society.?
Bill Engleson: Bill, a retired social worker, lives on Denman Island. He?s a pickleball aficionado, novelist, poet, humourist, essayist, flash fictionista, and community volunteer.?He has published one noirish social work novel, Like a Child to Home.? ?In 2016, Silver Bow Publishing released his second book, a collection of humorous literary essays, Confessions of an Inadvertently Gentrifying Soul.?Bill?s poetry appeared in several recent Vancouver Island Poetry Anthologies including Drift, Poems and Poets from the Comox Valley. His short story, Cuban Cigars, was in the Winter 2021 edition of Island Magazine.?He?s currently writing a prequel to his first novel called, Drawn Towards the Sun. Bill joined the CVWS in December, 2020. For more information, check his twitter, @billmelaterplea, and his occasionally updated website/blog?www.engleson.ca
Janet Miller:?Janet began as a cart-wheeling, horseback riding kid on the farm. She parachuted, dropped out of university, hitch-hiked around Western Canada and the Yukon, peeled potatoes in an oil rig camp kitchen, pulled lumber on a green chain, took a bus to Mexico and stayed there for several years.??Her children?s book, Cross My Heart, was published in 2002. She writes nonfiction, flash fiction and short stories. Her work has been published in newspapers, literary journals and anthologies. Janet is a long-time member of the Federation of BC Writers and the Writers Union of Canada. She has been a CVWS member for nine years, including seven years as a board member, with experience in the roles of VP and President. In 2021, Janet was chosen for a (very chilly) two-week Solo Writers Retreat at the Haig Brown House. Janet is currently working on her second novel.?
?Marlet Ashley:?Marlet, B.A., B.Ed., M.A., After earning an M.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing at the U. of Windsor, she taught creative writing there as a sessional instructor. Moving to Vancouver, B.C. she was a tenured instructor of literature and composition at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, B.C.? Her publications include a novel, The Right Kind of Crazy (2018); travelogue picture books Crumblies do Skye and Crumblies do Paris; and seven children?s books; Literature and the Writing Process, Pearson Prentice Hall, Toronto. She facilitates a fiction writing group, The Group of Glacier Writers, who have published a collection of short stories Re-Collections (2021). She was a finalist for the 2012 John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award, won honourable mention in the Lorian Hemmingway 2018 Short Story Competition and in the 2020 Writers? Digest Literary Short Fiction Contest. Her short story ?A Day?s Work? was performed at the 2021 Woodstove Festival in Cumberland, BC. Marlet lives with her husband, artist Pieter Molenaar, in Comox, BC. She has been a member of the CVWS for twelve years, and has held past roles of secretary and member at large. At present, Marlet facilitates a fiction writing group under the auspices of the CVWS.?
Michael Lalonde:?Michael?s work has appeared in I & Eye, The Prairie Journal, Island Writer, and in the 2017 anthology Canadian Shorts. He was a semi-finalist in the 2013 John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award, and the first-place winner in the 2017 Island Writer Creative Non-Fiction Contest. He graduated from the Humber School of Writing (Toronto) in 2020 where Saskatchewan writer Dianne Warren mentored him for one year on his novel. His story Shuswap was shortlisted for the?2021 Federation of BC Writers Contest. He lives on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. His website is:?mikelalonde.com??Michael has been a CVWS member for nine years. He was its vice-president one year and has participated in its fiction writing subgroup.
Meaghan Hackinen?(FBCW host): Meaghan is a writer and ultra-endurance cyclist whose two-wheeled adventures have taken her from Haida Gwaii to Mexico?s high plateaus, across Canada and the United States, and from North Cape to Tarifa along Europe?s highest paved roads. Her debut travel memoir,?South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels?(NeWest Press, 2019) was a finalist? for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and an Alberta Book Publishing Award. Meaghan has an MFA in Writing from the University of Saskatchewan and lives on the traditional territory of the Syilx (Okanagan) People in Kelowna, British Columbia.?
