Meet the Staff

Megan st. Marie

President and Co-owner

I am a seventh-generation Vermonter, but I’ve lived in Massachusetts for most of my adult life, ever since I enrolled as an undergraduate at Smith College. I earned my MA in Children’s Literature at Simmons University, where I held adjunct and contract faculty appointments from 2003 to 2020. Under my maiden name, Megan Dowd Lambert, I am a published children’s book author and scholar, and my work in that field is rooted in a passion for helping others share and respond to stories. In fact, much of my career in Children’s Literature revolves around the interactive Whole Book Approach storytime model I developed in association with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

My investment in actively listening to children respond to stories through the Whole Book Approach now translates into my commitment to carefully listen to Modern Memoirs clients as they tell their own stories through personal history work. In many ways, this new career path is leading me to follow in my parents’ footsteps. My mother, Linda Dowd Lambert, provides me with a model of respecting and valuing the stories and wisdom of older generations through her decades-long career as a nurse, hospice provider, and elder caregiver. In his retirement from public school administration, my father, Raymond Alfred Lambert, has immersed himself in genealogy research, tracing our Lambert family history back to 16th century France, and to 60 of the roughly 800 Filles du Roi (King’s Daughters) who emigrated from France to Québec in the 17th century, as well as many 18th-century Acadians impacted by Le Grand Dérangement (the Great Expulsion). The website he maintains with his research is a treasure trove of stories, photographs, documents, and inspiration.

While both my parents provide support and encouragement in this new career venture, it was the experience of editing my uncle Hank Lambert’s self-published memoir about growing up as one of thirteen children born to a French-Canadian family in a northern Vermont border-town that first drew me to the personal historian field. This work not only taught me a great deal about our family, it affirmed the value of life-review writing and intergenerational storytelling as means of self-discovery and deepening familial connections. Inspired by my uncle’s writing and my father’s genealogy research, I devoted a 2018 sabbatical to a variety of writing projects rooted in family history, which illuminated the value of noncommercial publishing options for preservation and personal purposes, as opposed to marketable texts.

I embarked on this new career path at Modern Memoirs with great hopes for how it would enable my husband, Sean St. Marie, and me to model lives of purpose and partnership to the seven children in our blended family, aged 1 through 22 when we bought the business. They fill our lives with stories, and we regard this new venture as a dream-come-true chapter in our lives together.

Sean St. Marie

Vice President and Co-owner

I was a forty-something, never-wed bachelor with no kids when Megan and I met in 2013. We married the next year, and I became stepfather to her five children. We’ve since welcomed two more sons into the world, and the seven children were aged 1-22 at the time of our purchase of Modern Memoirs. This moment marked the bittersweet end of my three-year stint as a stay-at-home dad—the most rewarding and demanding role I’ve ever had. Today I am happy to help Megan run the business, which has grown and flourished in the years since we became co-owners.

I’m a book-lover like Megan, which led me to complete a minor in English Literature along with my BS in Business Management from Westfield State University. I earned an MS in Library and Information Science with an Archives Management concentration from Simmons University. During my graduate studies I completed archival organization and exhibition projects for family collections at Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries and the Jones Library Special Collections in Amherst, Massachusetts.

While my separate role as the Administrative Coordinator for the Emily Dickinson Museum is my full-time job, my archivist training positions me to support Modern Memoirs client projects, particularly in the areas of Genealogical Research and Family History Preservation. This sort of work took on special meaning for me when my mother, Ann Sheridan St. Marie, passed away in 2019. She was a consummate storyteller and the beloved matriarch of our extended family, and our family’s greatest comfort in the wake of her loss arises from the surety we have in her lasting impact on our lives. She and my father, Terry St. Marie, a U.S. Navy veteran with passions for photography and history that he passed on to me, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2018, and we all treasure our memories of my mother and are determined to preserve them and pass them on to the next generations. Because I know how important this is to my family and me, I am eager to help others research and preserve their own personal and family histories.

Alison "Ali" de Groot

Director of Publishing

I have been with Modern Memoirs since 2003. I hold a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Tufts University, and a master’s in teaching from the School for International Training. For 15 years prior to discovering Modern Memoirs, I taught English, ESOL, and writing at the university level both in the U.S. and abroad.

I have always felt passionate about writing and met Kitty Axelson-Berry in 1997 at a workshop she was leading on Bereavement Book writing. The first and most arduous project I undertook was a memoir of my late mother, entitled Learning to Speak (1999). Throughout the process, I learned the far-reaching, therapeutic benefits of writing and bookmaking. Through Kitty and her non-profit American Tribute Center (ATC), I volunteered to create a Tribute Book for the bereaved family of a 9/11 victim. This book, entitled Sands of Pearl, was published by ATC (2004) and given to the family as a gift. One thing led to the next, and it was clear to me that working at Modern Memoirs was a true calling.

To the job, I bring my cultural awareness, sense of compassion, and undivided attention to clients. I have a deep respect for the healing and transformative properties of writing as well as the invaluable nature of memoirs and family histories.

To encourage others and to keep my own craft alive, I hosted First Person! First Night!, a monthly public reading event for memoirists, held here at the Modern Memoirs office for over 13 years. I recently published an anthology of these writers, entitled The Reader's Chair (2018). When not at work, I’m usually swimming, writing, or dancing—currently modern dance, Kazdance, jazz, Sevillanas, and improvisational movement.

Liz sonnenberg

Genealogist

It’s fair to say that I’ve had a lifelong passion for genealogy. I was born in Iowa and grew up mainly in Wisconsin. My grandfathers died before I was born, and the fact that I never had the chance to meet them created a void inside me. I wanted to learn everything I could about them, and so I endlessly interviewed my grandmothers about their husbands’ lives. That led to all kinds of questions about their own lives, too. Soon I had notebooks filled with charts and facts. I continued to gather all of the information I could over the years and developed systems for organizing and writing about it.

At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, I earned a BA in journalism and linguistics. After I graduated, I moved to New England to pursue a career in journalism, working at two newspaper companies in Maine. Then I moved to Massachusetts, where I worked for 25 years in operations management at a publishing company. All along, I tried to learn more about my family history, and with the advent of the internet, I began researching my family’s deeper roots in New England and French Canada. And that’s when my efforts went awry! Though the internet has made huge volumes of information available to the lay family historian, it has also made the perpetuation of inaccuracies very easy to do. One time, I found myself enthusiastically announcing a major, but undocumented, claim to my parents and brother, only to have to retract it with great embarrassment a little while later.

From then on, I dedicated myself to doing genealogy “right” by rigorously evaluating evidence and documenting sources. This pursuit of best practices culminated with my completion of a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University, which emphasizes professionalism and adherence to the Genealogical Proof Standard.

 As a professional genealogist, I bring to my work at Modern Memoirs the conviction that one of the most important things you can do for your loved ones is to share your genealogical discoveries with them. After all, your experience with the people and events in your family history is unique and irreplaceable. Documenting memories and information that can flesh out names and dates with actual stories of the lives they represent is a gift that will enrich the lives of many, while opening up the possibility for ongoing research and collaboration across generations. I will wholeheartedly work with you to research your ancestry, document and organize your findings, and help you preserve and craft your family story so that those who come after you will know those who came before you.

NICOLE mILLER

Book Designer

My interest in books was cultivated in my early childhood when, from the age of four, I regularly accompanied my mother to the public library for her shifts as a volunteer. I spent many happy hours there, marveling at picture books and listening to storytellers bring illustrations to life.

These early experiences inspired my passion and talent for drawing, tapping into the artistic nature I inherited from my mother’s side of the family. My grandmother was a painter and singer and would perform at local venues with my grandfather, who played the piano. Following in their footsteps, I continued my artistic pursuits throughout my school years and moved to the Boston area for college. I studied art, with a concentration in graphic design and business, and earned a BS in Business Management from Lesley College. I started my career as an illustrator and graphic designer for a media company, where I spent fourteen years in advertising. My creative roles later evolved into leadership roles in marketing with various organizations in the Boston area, Providence, Rhode Island, and eventually Western Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, I’ve continued with my own creative pursuits. I am currently illustrating and designing a children’s book entitled Chopsticks Goes to New York, written by my late uncle. It’s a true story from childhood about our Siamese cat who made her way inside my visiting uncle’s sleeping bag and then unwittingly took a business trip to New York City. In recent years, I’ve also designed children’s books, poetry volumes, and journals. I take immense pleasure in working with authors to help them navigate the process of bringing books to fruition. When I’m not engaged in design and illustration, I can be found hiking, canoeing, rummaging flea markets, and exploring with my daughter.

Stories connect us with the world and help us understand others. Everyone has a story to tell, and it’s my great pleasure to help Modern Memoirs clients tell theirs through thoughtful, beautiful book design.

EMmA solis

Publishing Associate

In the summer of 2022 I was honored to serve as an intern with Modern Memoirs with generous support from the Praxis Program at Smith College. I’ve always enjoyed learning about a wide variety of topics; over the course of my studies I examined such subjects as French literature and cinema, ancient libraries, the New Journalism movement, and book history and design. While at Smith, I also worked in the Jacobson Center as a peer tutor and editor, and during my senior year I did some freelance work with Megan St. Marie on her book Read It Again: 70 Whole Book Approach Plans to Help You Shake Up Storytime, in order to continue to prepare myself for a career in publishing. I graduated from Smith in May 2023 with a major in World Literatures and a concentration in Book Studies, and I couldn’t be more excited to start in my new position as Publishing Associate at Modern Memoirs.

I was initially inspired to work with Modern Memoirs by a one-of-a-kind course I took in 2022, “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction; Writing in Words and Images,” which is the only iteration of that course taught in the Smith College Botanical Garden. There were many memoirs on the syllabus, and for one assignment, students were to wander the greenhouses, each of which embodies a different area of the world, and choose one plant around which to base our own memoir pieces. I made a beeline for the Cactus and Succulent room, where plants from my home state of Texas grow, and selected a golden barrel cactus, or echinocactus grusonii.

Writing my memoir piece was more challenging—and more rewarding—than I ever imagined. As I poured my heart into my own writing, it occurred to me that each memoir reading I had done over the course of the semester represented an immense labor of love. Moreover, I learned how strong the connection between a reader and author is when the reader experiences the author’s life along with them. Now I am thrilled to bring my interest in publishing and passion for creative nonfiction to this role, where I can assist Modern Memoirs in helping clients to preserve their memories and family histories while creating lasting connections with their readers.

Olivia Go

Publishing Intern, Fall 2023 and Spring 2024

Originally from Los Angeles, California, I am currently a senior at Smith College, majoring in English and minoring in Digital Art. I first heard about Modern Memoirs through Smith College’s Lazarus Center for Career Development and was fortunate to be hired as an intern in the fall of 2023.

As an English major, I’ve taken literature classes and writing workshops with amazing literary mentors such as Ruth Ozeki, Michael Gorra, and Russ Rhymer. While I specialize in Creative Writing with a focus on fictional pieces, I have recently taken a special interest in nonfiction writing. This new direction has arisen as I’ve come to understand for myself the value of personal, familial, and cultural history. As an Asian American woman living through the COVID-19 pandemic and the painful rise of anti-Asian sentiment that emerged in the midst of this public health crisis, I’ve found it especially grounding to write about my family history and to document the practices that have defined and sustained us for generations. In fact, I recently wrote a nonfiction piece about my Korean grandmother’s cooking, which will soon be published by a POC-owned magazine called Lucky Jefferson.

In addition to my literary studies and writing pursuits, I have also studied a variety of subjects outside my major and minor, taking full advantage of my liberal arts education. I’ve taken courses in Computer Science, Digital Media, Korean film, and Anthropology, and I am also on the executive board of Smith’s student-run radio station, WOZQ 91.9 FM. I host a weekly talk show with a close friend, covering a wide breadth of topics. We go from talking about our favorite works of art, to debating free will and destiny, to discussing our post-college futures.

I applied for this internship with Modern Memoirs because I am considering a career in publishing, and I know I will learn a great deal about various facets of the business while working with the staff and assisting in any way that I can. I believe that everyone should be able to tell their story and will draw on my own passion for reading and writing to help others achieve their publishing goals.

Kitty Axelson-Berry

Founder and Consultant

I founded MODERN MEMOIRS, Inc. in 1994, following twenty years as a writer for and editor of award-winning print newsmedia and public radio commentary. My mother was my inspiration. I wanted to understand and document her personal history. In part, it was a way to honor her and those who came before her. In part, it was a way to ensure that future generations would know and remember her and those who came before her. In doing so, I found I'd hit a chord that reverberated for many other people as well. They wanted to gather and preserve their own or a loved one's personal history.

Since then, my small company has self-published over 200 memoirs and family histories for clients in the U.S., England, France, Israel, Colombia, Spain, and other countries. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve so many people in this profound way.

When I left the newspaper world to start this business, it was a new idea. I decided to bring together like-minded personal historians so that we could share cutting-edge theories and technologies concerning memoirs, the nature of memory, the best technologies, papers, contracts, and so on. I founded the Association of Personal Historians (1995), an international trade association. After the APH and my own business were established, I co-founded the American Tribute Center (2001), a non-profit that specialized in pro bono writing and private publishing of Tribute Books for bereaved families of 9/11.

Born and raised in West Hempstead, New York, I graduated from Smith College in 1971 with a major in religious studies and a minor in music. The next step in my personal journey was an exploration of the differences between needs and choices, going back-to-the-land without electricity or water for several years. At some point, my name morphed from Cathy Marsha Lebow to Kitty Axelson-Berry.

I became certified in conflict transformation by the Conflict Transformation Across Cultures (CONTACT) graduate program at the School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont (2013); this included solo travel in Rwanda, South Korea, and the Middle East to understand more about peace, truth, justice, reconciliation, and non-violent activism.

Photograph by Julie Moran, Eyestory Photography (2016)

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And in memoriam: Arthur McLean, proofreader extraordinaire, gentle soul, who once wrote:

“I want you know that I’ve never had a better job than Modern Memoirs and I’ll be at the front of the line of those ready to help it grow (and I offer much more than major-league proofreading experience at The Wall Street Journal, Modern Memoirs, and the Advocate newspapers). Mostly, though, I can’t think of a better place to be than at Modern Memoirs.”