Modern Memoirs

12/22/2025

Happy Solstice! Dating back to 1994, our practice of sending out winter and summer solstice cards began with our founder, Kitty Axelson-Berry, and it remains a cherished tradition today. To see a gallery of past solstice mailings, scroll down to the bottom of the Company History page on our website.

Earlier this month, we mailed out hundreds of copies of the beautiful ❄️card for 2025, created by Book Designer Nicole Miller and pictured here. If you did not receive a card and would like us to send one in the mail, please contact us to make a request. Or, let us know if you would like extras to share with people you know who might be interested in Modern Memoirs’ services.

12/19/2025

Our December 2025 newsletter is here, with news and inspiration from Modern Members staff and clients. This month, we even added a poem written by poet Anne Eastman Yeomans in honor of our 30+ year tradition of sending our biannual solstice cards. (link in bio)

12/19/2025

"Why write a memoir or family history? Because it’s bigger than you, and it is your gift to the past, present, and future, and it will come around again just when you think everyone has forgotten…”

Read "A Toast to Family History" by Director of Publishing Ali de Groot at the link in our bio.

12/09/2025

Read our latest client interview, "Reflections from Raymond A. Lambert." Lambert is the father of company president Megan St. Marie, and with her help he published his book, Highgate Gleanings: Some Vermont History, Family Stories, and Verses in 2020. In the interview, Lambert shares about choosing an , writing a , and how research informed his writing. "If any parent-and-child pair reading this blog has the inclination to work together on a project like this, don’t hesitate!" he concludes. "The gifts of writing, reminiscing, and sharing will be ones you’ll always treasure, in addition to the book you create." https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/12/reflections-from-raymond-a-lambert

11/18/2025

John Philip Bower collaborated with his wife, Mary Jane, to publish An Unlikely Entrepreneur with Modern Memoirs in 2015. This autobiography took about 1-1/2 years to complete, with John and Mary Jane working especially closely with Modern Memoirs founder, Kitty Axelson-Berry. John began the book just before being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia with the variant PPA, which first takes away speaking, reading, and understanding. Now he lives in a memory care home. We asked Mary Jane to reflect on what the publication process was like for her and her husband, and what it has meant to share John’s—their—book with others.

11/13/2025

Check out our latest blog post by Book Designer Nicole Miller: "Overcoming the #1 Fear of Writers: Mediocrity." Advocating the support of professional editors and designers, Nicole reassures "the client who worries their life story is simply too big (or too dull) for a book. When you finally finish that manuscript—you’ll feel the same thrilling moment of relief: 'It's Alive!'" (link in bio)

11/11/2025

Our clients come to us wanting to create heirloom-quality books that will stand the test of time. When one such client recently received her books with a fine sewn binding, she wanted to make sure to handle them carefully. While opening a book might seem like an everyday act that needs no forethought, we appreciated her inquiry and sent her this helpful video about how to open a new book: https://youtu.be/7rNAiq9tLOM?si=UowmiFE52GkOy66M.

10/29/2025

Our October 2025 newsletter is here, including a book review of the memoir and family-history book, Secrets of the Asylum: Norwich State Hospital and My Family, written by Julianne Mangin and pictured here.

The full review, written by company president Megan St. Marie, appears in the fall 2025 edition of Résonance, an open-access electronic, curated, editor-reviewed literary journal published by its editorial board in Orono, Maine annually under the aegis of the Franco American Programs of the University of Maine.

Click on the link below to read the full newsletter, with other news and inspiration from Modern Memoirs staff and clients: https://conta.cc/43tBQEw

10/16/2025

In her blog post "A Look Back at Modern Memoirs Internships," company president Megan St. Marie writes,

"Interns have often been part of the inner workings at Modern Memoirs over our 30+ years. We don’t have an intern currently, but I am sure we will host them again in the future—perhaps even next semester—and in the meantime, I’ve been reflecting on how rewarding it’s been to engage with them in the past."

To read the full post, click here: https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/9/a-look-back-at-modern-memoirs-publishing-interns. And, if you know a student who might be interested in an internship at Modern Memoirs in 2026, please send them our way!

10/15/2025

Read company president Megan St. Marie’s review of a compelling, powerful, Franco American family history, Secrets of the Asylum: Norwich State Hospital and My Family by Julianne Mangin, in this journal. ❤️📚

We are delighted to announce the publication of volume 7 of the open-access Franco-American literary journal Résonance. https://www.resonance-journal.org/

Our latest annual issue features an illuminating interview with writer/performer Susan Poulin that mixes humorous images with an in-depth discussion of the ideas and hard work that inform her much-admired creative output.


Thanks to our Interim Arts editor Jonathan Mayers, volume 7 showcases visual arts, displaying work by Shelbey Leco, Fabrice Poussin, and Amber Valette.

We invite you to explore compelling pieces of fiction, creative non-fiction, mixed genres, and poetry, as well as translations and book reviews by award-winning authors such as Darren C. Demaree, Samara Cole Doyon, Denis Ledoux, Claire Raymond, and Jeri Theriault.

Please help us spread the word about our unique journal.

We will open for submissions to volume 8 on November 1, 2025.

10/06/2025

Our latest client interview is here! Read Part II of "Reflections from Margaret Marcus," in which Marcus discusses her second book with Modern Memoirs, Suddenly Upside Down: Recollections from Pandemic Years 2020 and 2021. https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/10/reflections-from-margaret-marcus-part-2

Pictured here is the cover design that Book Designer Nicole Miller created. She used art from a mug that Marcus's grandson made to create the vibrant, eye-catching design.

09/29/2025

Our September 2025 newsletter is here! https://conta.cc/482hK7F Please read and share "What Is Your Calling?" for news and inspiration from Modern Memoirs, Inc. This month, company president Megan St. Marie writes about her recent visit to California, where she spoke about her own books and about , , , and at a repeat client's retirement community in Palo Alto. Megan is pictured here with some of the people she was fortunate to meet during her trip. Reach out today if you would like to bring online or in-person programs from Modern Memoirs to your site. (newsletter link in bio)