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The Friends of Concord Free Public Library present Writing Memoir - Reading Memoir: Using Personal Narrative to Find Meaning, Healing, and Purpose, a virtual conversation with celebrated authors Maryanne O'Hara and Faith Fuller Wilcox. We each have a story to tell and for many, writing those stories can be healing for both writer and reader. Join authors Maryanne O’Hara and Faith Wilcox as they share how a search for meaning after suffering the loss of beloved daughters led them to write memoirs about grief, loss and love that celebrate what it means to be human. 

Maryanne O’Hara is the author, most recently, of Little Matches: A Memoir of Grief and Light (HarperCollins, 2021). She holds an MFA in creative writing, has taught creative writing at Emerson College, and was a longtime editor at the literary journal, Ploughshares. She is the author of an award-winning novel, Cascade (Viking/Penguin 2012), many short stories, and is a recipient of literary grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the St. Botolph Club. After volunteering as an end-of-life volunteer at care facilities in Boston and Pittsburgh, Maryanne became a certified end-of-life doula at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine in 2019. She lectures on topics including chronic illness, bereavement, and secular spirituality and is the developer of a legacy writing workshop that facilitates personal and communal reflective creative practices across identity, age, and health status.

Faith Fuller Wilcox, author of Hope Is A Bright Star: A Mother’s Memoir of Love, Loss, and Learning to Live Again, believes that self-expression through writing leads to healing. Her writing is reflective of a growing body of medical research about “narrative identity,” which illuminates that how we make sense of what happens to us and the meaning we give to experiences beyond our control directly impact our physical and psychological outcomes. Faith learned these truths firsthand when her thirteen-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer that took her life. Faith’s journey from grief and despair to moments of comfort and peace taught her life-affirming lessons, which she shares today through her writing. A longtime resident of Massachusetts, Faith leads a journal writing program at MassGeneral Hospital for Children for patients and their families designed to give participants the opportunity to express themselves, alleviate stress, celebrate victories, and honor their grief.