Local Author: Eleanor Taylor Bland

Eleanor Taylor Bland contributes regularly and generously to her community, including the Waukegan Public Library. She currently serves on the Friends of the Library board and has freely donated her time over the years for writing classes and presenting awards for the Ray Bradbury Creative Writing Contest.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Ms. Bland moved to Illinois in 1972 and currently resides in Waukegan. To date, she has published 13 novels in the Marti MacAlister Mystery series: Dead Time, Slow Burn, Gone Quiet, Done Wrong, Keep Still, See No Evil, Tell No Tales, Scream in Silence, Whispers in the Dark, Windy City Dying, Fatal Remains, A Cold and Silent Dying, and A Dark and Deadly Deception. All are published by St. Martin's Press, Inc. Gone Quiet is being adapted as a play by the Chicago Theater Company.

Lincoln Prairie, Ms. Bland's fictional town is really a composite of Waukegan, North Chicago, and Zion, Illinois. When writing, she uses a map of these cities, renames the streets, and occasionally moves buildings and landmarks. Crime scenes include the old Waukegan Hotel, the Andrew Carnegie Library, the Genesee Theater, Bowen Park, Shimer College, the College of Lake County, and the ravines. Ms. Bland also writes about the cultural community north of the city of Chicago, and deals with issues of particular concern to women, children, the elderly, the homeless, and the mentally ill.

Ms. Bland recently edited the anthology Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Authors. Her short stories are also included in seven anthologies: Women on the , Sara Paretsky, Editor; Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes, Paula L. Woods, Editor; Malice Domestic 7, Sharon McCrumb, Editor; Murder on Route 66, Carolyn Wheat, Editor; The Night Awakens, Mary Higgins Clark, Editor; and The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, Ed Gorman, Editor.

Ms. Bland has received the Chester A. Himes Mystery Fiction Award; the Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award; the Illinois Outstanding Citizen Award, the College of Lake County Distinguished Alumni Award; the Most Influential African American of Lake County Award. She is a charter member, past secretary, and past chairperson for the Outreach to Authors of Color for Sisters in Crime and has served on the Midwest Region and National Boards of Mystery Writers of America. She is on the Boards of Directors for LaCasa, the Lake County Council Against Sexual Assault; Staben House, a transitional housing facility for women and children, the Honorary Board for the Preservation of the Genesee Theater, and the Waukegan Friends of the Library. She has also served on boards for the Theater of Sound Concert Chorus; the Waukegan Park District, and the Waukegan Symphony and Concert Chorus. She is a business partner for Waukegan School District 60; an Author in Residence for Warren Newport Township Library; Chicago Charles V. Woodson Regional Library. She is a member of St. Anastasia Church where she serves on the Pastoral Council. She is a professed Lay Carmelite.

Ms. Bland is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and the College of Lake County with degrees in education and accounting. She was a cost accountant at Abbott Laboratories for seventeen years and is retired. She has two sons, two grandsons, two granddaughters, and a wonderful daughter-in-law.

Links:
Waukegan Public Library Online Catalog: Eleanor Taylor Bland
Profile on Answers.com
Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color, University of Minnesota