The story of a man coming into his own by coming home.

Since he was a boy, Bill Eville knew he wanted two things in life: to be a writer and a father. Being a minister's husband had not been on this list, having left the church as a teenager as soon as his parents stopped making him go each Sunday.

In Washed Ashore, Eville's life changes when his wife Cathlin takes a job as the first female pastor of a 350-year-old church on Martha's Vineyard, the island that was once home to generations of his ancestors. With their two small children in tow, the couple begins a new life eight miles out at sea.

Readers follow Eville's journey from stay-at-home-dad to newspaper editor as he discovers what it means to be a writer, a father, and--after his wife's devasting breast cancer diagnosis--what it truly means to be a minister's husband. Washed Ashore, told in a series of linked essays, is poignant and funny, filled with faith, struggle, and light.

Eville, Bill

Bill Eville is the editor of the Vineyard Gazette, where his work has garnered numerous awards from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. He is a graduate of Princeton University and holds an MFA from Florida State University. His essays have appeared in print and on-air at venues such as The New York Times, This American Life, The Moth, and WBUR's Cognoscenti. He lives on Martha's Vineyard with his wife and two children.