There are many approaches to writing a memoir, but author Alison Nissen suggests one as natural as turning the pages in a mental scrapbook. Alison talks about “Quilting Your Memoir, One Memory at a Time” at the Saturday, May 27 meeting of the Ponte Vedra Writers, at the Ponte Vedra Library at 10:30 a.m.

Alison, who describes herself as a writer who does daily battle with dog hair and laundry, says, “We all have personal stories to tell—some inspirational, some comical, others passionate, deep, and sensitive—worthy of remembering and sharing with family, friends, and strangers. Our memories are not revealed to us in chronological order but rather stitched together in cascading colors and textures. Likewise, our memoirs need not be written in epic form from beginning to end; rather, they can be collected into small, vibrant accounts of our experiences.”

Alison is a graduate of both Denison University and Norwich University with a BA and MA in Literature and chairs Lakeland Writers, a Florida Writers Association chapter. She was the winner of the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Awards Unpublished Autobiography/Memoir for Resolve, Courage, Hope. She was also the runner-up for the 2014 US Department of Interior’s National Park Service Big Cypress poetry contest. Her works can be found in the anthologies Looking Life in the Eye and Stories for All Seasons, the Florida Writers Association Blog, The Florida Writer, and the MDA/ALS Magazine.

The Ponte Vedra Writers is a long-running chapter of the Florida Writers Association, a statewide, non-profit organization with over 1,400 members dedicated to the support and networking of both aspiring and published writers in any genre. All meetings are open to members and non-members alike.