Welcome to the 'not-yet-official' W. P.  Kinsella website.

I can only speak as the designer of this website and the pages herein, but to me, Bill Kinsella seems like a pretty cool guy. When I lived in the Fraser Valley, there was a period of time when Bill lived nearby. He walked past the front of my studio almost every day on his way to a nearby food outlet. I had no idea who he was but we had spoken briefly on a few occasions.

During his time in my neighbourhood, Bill showed particular kindness to Peter and Anna Bonde, my friends and neighbors. He had brought them some autographed books as a way of saying thank you for allowing him to harvest nuts from trees on their property.

A day or so after Anna had met Bill, she flagged me down as I passed by on motorcycle. She brought the books out to the driveway to show them to me, and asked if I knew who this kind and gentle man was... and if I had heard of him. Long story short: I enjoyed a good laugh and told Anna I had actually chatted with the man in front of my home-studio on Birch Street. I told her that I did not however, realize it was W. P. Kinsella until I saw the books she so proudly displayed. I told her that Bill was indeed the author of the books he had given her and had written many other books and stories, including Dance Me Outside (1977) and Shoeless Joe (1982).  I remember telling her and Peter that W. P. was considered to be a very famous man and that the movie Field of Dreams was adapted from Shoeless Joe.

The funny thing is, Peter and Anna do not own a television set or go out to movies, so they really didn't know anything about Field of Dreams. They were impressed to learn just how famous Bill is. That being said, my friends were quite happy to simply think of him as the kindly gentleman who passed their home on his walks and was thoughtful enough to bring a few books for their family.

He does a weekly column for the Vancouver Province Newspaper. If you don't have access to a Province newspaper or you're not a resident of British Columbia's Lower Mainland, you can read his Weekly Newspaper column here.