Co-founder of The Poetry Night Reading Series, Brad Henderson is a Lecturer Emeritus in the University Writing Program at UC Davis. After earning a B.S. in mechanical engineering, Henderson worked as a design engineer for Parker-Hannifin Aerospace in Irvine, California, during the 1980s. He wrote three novels during this period, earned an MPW degree from USC, and participated in John Rechy’s private Los Angeles fiction workshop. During the 1990s, one of Henderson’s books, Drums: a Novel, found a small-press publisher and achieved brief notoriety among rock music aficionados, as well as earning an endorsement from Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum. From 1993 to 1999, Henderson re-entered the corporate world as a technical education consultant and manager of an internal diversity program for Hewlett-Packard. Brad attended K through 12 in Davis public schools and completed his first two years of college at UC Davis while wrestling varsity on the Aggie squad. Henderson’s maternal great-great-grandfather, Henry Hartman Hamel, was one of Davisville’s original pioneer settlers. What’s more, both Henderson’s father and paternal grandfather were emeritus professors in the UC Davis College of Engineering. These days, Brad Henderson plays drums, practices martial arts, and labors on a variety of creative publication projects–in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
