CARRABASSETT VALLEY – On Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018 at 4 p.m. at the Carrabassett Valley Public Library and CC in the Begin Family Community Room, Elizabeth Peavey will share her memoir.
We all have stories from our lives to tell, but getting them down on paper can be challenging. Join celebrated Maine author and performer Elizabeth Peavey for a discussion about memoir and strategies for getting our personal narratives on the page.
Peavey’s talk will focus on the nuts and bolts of writing: how to set small goals, how to develop a central idea and stick with it and how to make our worlds come alive through vivid detail. She will also touch on the slippery issue of truth vs. fact when recalling the past. Just think of those lively discussions around the dinner table. Rarely do family members have the same recollection of an event. So which one is “true”?
Attendees will be sent off with a writing exercise to get them started, because preserving our family stories is a wonderful way to celebrate the holidays.
About the author:
Elizabeth Peavey’s one-woman show, My Mother’s Clothes Are Not My Mother, has played to sold-out houses – including The Rack (perhaps the first and last theatrical performance at that venue) – since 2011 and received the Maine Literary Award for Best Drama. She is the author of three books, most recently, Glorious Slow Going, a collaboration with renowned landscape artist and Stratton resident Marguerite Robichaux. Peavey’s popular memoir workshops have been presented by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance since the days of quill and parchment. In 2015, she launched a memoir-writing program for older adults and went on to develop an online version through Senior College.
Peavey served as a lecturer of public speaking at the University of Southern Maine for over 20 years and taught creative non-fiction at UMF. Her countless features and humor writing appeared in various publications, including Down East magazine since 1993. She currently coaches corporate and private speech clients and is a frequent guest lecturer and speaker at schools, libraries and associations across the state.
