Phoenix Writers Club Author Profile

Wanda Bevan

Wanda writes contemporary women’s fiction and poetry. Born in Ithaca, New York, and a graduate of Northwestern University, she’s worked as an actress, legal assistant, event manager, and hotel business professional. She’s the songwriter of Little Girl, a tribute to the youngest victim of the 2011 Tucson shooting that wounded former Arizona congresswoman, Gabby Giffords, and her poem America’s Child is on display at the Oklahoma City Memorial honoring those who perished in the federal building bombing in 1995.

Her latest book, The Rains of Wishton (2025) is the second in the Wishton series, following her first novel, Their Souls Met in Wishton (2016). She is also the author of A Slow Dance in Memoriam and Other Poems (2022), a poetry anthology. Following three decades in Southern California, Wanda now lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Useful Links

• Wanda Penalver Bevan Website

• Interview in Starlight Scribe, Scottsdale, Arizona – Starlight Scribe | Wanda Penalver Bevan | Scottsdale, Arizona

• Sparks of Calliope – Two Poems by Wanda Penalver Bevan

• 7 Women’s Fiction Novels with Twisted Timelines | BookTrib.

• Booklife Prize Entry/Publisher’s Weekly critique

Select Publications

Their Souls Met in Wishton

When the universe sends Liam Kincaid back into Miranda Peterson’s life, warm memories turn into obsessive thoughts. Fueled by her imagination, Miranda is compelled to write a story about the life she and Liam might have had together. But Nicole and Garrett, the young lovers in Miranda’s book, are not without their own set of problems. Garrett moves away before high school graduation, Nicole faces the pitfalls of the entertainment business, both of them striving to save their relationship amid challenges in the years ahead.

While Miranda is literally rewriting the past, her current relationship with Liam finds her unprepared for how his presence transforms her life, and how the powerful bond between them increasingly blurs the line between fact and fiction.

THEIR SOULS MET IN WISHTON weaves music with magical moments in a tale about falling in love, following your dreams, and pondering the timeless question, "What if?" It is the first book in the Wishton serires

The Rains of Wishton

Faced with the challenges of midlife and a desire to leave the past behind, Miranda Peterson is on a quest for renewal that beckons her to follow the road wherever it leads her. While she strives to protect her heart from any risk of falling in love again in the real world, Miranda continues to write the story of Nicole and Garrett, young lovers determined to build a life together at any cost. Among their dilemmas is a blackmail scheme to ruin Nicole’s acting career, and a race against time to find the whereabouts of Garrett’s infant son.

As Miranda’s journey unfolds, a weekend getaway to be alone with herself unexpectedly opens a door for love to find its way to her again. What develops is a tug-of-war with her feelings for this gentle and passionate man who appears prepared to commit to her, but when Miranda is finally ready to embrace the happiness that awaits her, a bond formed decades ago with her high school sweetheart may not be buried as deeply as she thinks.

The Rains of Wishton is the second in the Wishton series, by author Wanda Penalver Bevan.

A Slow Dance in Memoriam and Other Poems: A Collection

The poems in A Slow Dance in Memoriam are windows to the author's deeply personal experience of emotions influenced by the things in life we all encounter at some point or another.

They bring us moments inspired by joy, passion, fear, uncertainty, grief, and, of course, love. Love in all its varied forms. This anthology includes poems written throughout the past four decades. In a style that combines prose and free verse, they reflect the musings of a woman from young adulthood through maturity.

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