Bob Welch is a speaker, author award-winning columnist and teacher. He serves as an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
He has keynoted conferences, workshops and retreats across America, tugging at hearts and tickling funny bones. “Forget the hyperbole,” said Julie Zander, organizer of the Association of Personal Historians conference in Portland in 2006. “Our 261 participants scored Welch a 4.81 on a 5.0-scale.”
A storyteller by nature, most of Welch’s speaking fodder comes from the 11 books he’s authored and the nearly 2,000 columns he’s written for The Register-Guard, Oregon’s second-largest newspaper. He has been honored six of the last eight years by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. In addition, he has won dozens of journalism awards, including the Seattle Times C.B. Blethen Award for Distinguished Feature Writing and the Oregon Newspaper Publisher Association's “Best Writing” and "Best Column" awards.
His book about a heroic World War II nurse, American Nightingale, was featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His book, Pebble in the Water, amplifies the author’s American Nightingale experience from an idea written on a Wendy’s napkin to the four years it took before the book was published. A previous book, Easy Company Soldier, has been ranked No. 1 in the country among World War II/Western Front books. It’s about Don Malarkey, an Oregon-born member of the well-known “Band of Brothers” unit made famous by historian Steven Ambrose and an HBO miniseries. A 1999 book, A Father for All Seasons, won the Gold Medallion Award for Family & Parenting.
Articles of Welch’s have been published in more than a dozen books, including seven in the popular “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.
In addition, he has had articles published in such magazines as Los Angeles Times, Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated and Runner's World.
Welch has served as a judge for numerous writing contests, including the Erma Bombeck Humor Writing awards.
If you check out his website, bobwelch.net, you will discover he is not above using a sentence like, “May the Metaphors be with you.”
Literary Harvest is Friday, October 16, 2009. For more information click on details.
1 comment:
Let's not forget that Bob spent the early part of his writing career, honing his skills as the Sports Editor of The Bend Bulletin.
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