Local writers will entertain at February’s Write Out Loud
On Wednesday, February 19, Write Out Loud is pleased to showcase five local authors.
Bonnie Allen is an award-winning journalist who has spent 26 years reporting for TV, radio, and digital from across Canada and around the world. Her career with CTV and CBC took her to several Canadian cities and to several countries in Africa. She’s currently the CBC National Reporter based in Saskatchewan and has won several awards including recognition for shining a public spotlight on intimate partner homicide and the overdose crisis in Saskatchewan. In 2022, she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for the best local reporter in the country.
Chris Beuhler has assembled a lifetime of experiences and developed well-defined attitudes and concerns about the state of planet earth and our place upon it. He has found the media of fiction and science fiction ideal for sharing those concepts. “We are still here” is now in its second edition, and the next novel in the series, published by Friesen Press, is called “Quest for Nuna Immaluk”. “Ayra”, the third novel in this series, postulates a possible outcome for artificial intelligence.
Doug Cameron, with a Bachelor’s Degree and PHD in Agriculture, worked at Research Stations in Ottawa and Swift Current. He started his own farm and did soils and environmental consulting all over Saskatchewan followed by work in several countries with agencies such as SNC-Lavalin, the FAO, and the World Bank. Drawing on his experiences as councilor to the president of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists’ regulatory body, he’s written two satires on regulatory bodies which are both shortlisted for the Mark Twain Satire Award. He’s written an entertaining and nostalgic memoir, “The Tarzan Tree”, about growing up on a farm in Alberta.
Keith M. Leonard is a fiction writer and also the creator and host of the “Brewing Fiction Podcast” produced in Swift Current. Keith's love for suspense and horror is evident in his stories, which often have dark undertones. While he enjoys writing about traditional monsters and the supernatural, he finds the cruelty and horror inherent in humanity far more terrifying. His debut publication, a collection of micro-horror fiction entitled “Short Not Sweet”, will be released on February 21st, 2025.
Olivia Brotzell is a budding writer, intent on asking much of her characters and constructing driving plots. Though yet unpublished, she hopes to be some day. She is a trained musician and librarian (Public Services Manager for the Swift Current Library and Chinook Regional Library) and is passionate about the arts as well as access to the arts. She’s finished the first draft of a historical fiction novel and becoming a published writer is her next goal.
Write Out Loud commences February 19 at the Swift Current Lyric Theatre. Admission is $8. Doors open at 6:30.