Writer John Edwards Book Launch

About this event

The Writer’s Center welcomes writer John R. Edwards for a reading from his debut memoir, Polly: Takes Me on the Ride of her Life. FREE & open to the public. RSVP below. John R. Edwards is a Navy veteran, who retired as Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center deputy chief engineer, then became a hip hop dance teacher and won three TV dance competitions and performed in two Michael Jackson Videos. He was awarded Los Angeles Magazine’s Environmental Publisher’s award and a White House Closing the Circle Award for reducing ozone depletion from rockets. He is the co-inventor of the Darwin Fish. His article on space debris earned an Air Force award. This bio-memoir is his debut Book. About Polly: Takes Me on the Ride of her Life It all started with a simple question: “What about your mother?” After the death of his father, John R. Edwards, retired Navy veteran turned dance instructor, had assembled a book outlining the life, accomplishments, and scientific publications of his father. Writing about his mother, though, had never occurred to him. They rarely got along, and at first glance, her life was simple—she was a nurse and mother. But this one question began Edwards’s quest to discover the intricacies of his mother Polly’s life. Weaving in family history beginning in Denmark and Michigan to LA, Edwards shares the story of Polly’s life—her travels, her faith, and her influence—showcasing from memories, letters, and journals that a person’s everyday life is rarely as simple as it first appears. Polly Takes Me on the Ride of Her Life is the story of one family’s heritage, with Polly at the helm, spanning from the Civil War to the surf era in Southern California, transporting readers to yesteryears when family members were Civil War heroes, area codes did not exist, and World War II lingered in recent memories. As Edwards retraces his mother’s journey, he discovers that beneath years of conflict lay a deeper truth: The woman he struggled to understand had been…