James V. Brown Library, Community Arts Center host Pa. native author Marie Benedict for annual gala

Pennsylvania native and fictional biography writer, Marie Benedict received a "warm Williamsport welcome," at the James V. Brown Library's 20th Annual Author Gala that took place at the Community Arts Center.

Benedict, who hails from Pittsburgh, who also writes under the name Heather Terrell, has been named on several best seller's lists, including The New York Times and USA Today.

"Your library is really special, and your town is really special," Benedict said.

While this is Benedict's first time through the area, she was very appreciative of the beauty so many take the time to observe this time of year.

"The drive here with the autumn leaves, it was really cool," she said, adding "we have nice colors in Pittsburgh, but not nearly as vivid."

Benedict describes herself as "the kid who always had her nose in a book," giving great credit to her aunt, who was a published poet, stating, "she always made sure that the perfect book always landed in my hands at the perfect time."

The book that blew open the doors to Benedict's awareness of women's personal stories that were not being written about was "Mists of Avalon," a retelling of the story of King Arthur from a female perspective.

Following that revelation, Marie decided to be a history major in college, but soon realized that being a real-life Indiana Jones was not as glamorous as the movies, switching shortly thereafter to achieve a law degree.

Benedict worked as a litigator for 11 years, which she referred to as 77 years, joking that one year as a lawyer really equated to one year in dog years.

"But, from the start, I knew it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing," she said, "I still was listening and curious about those unknown stories from the past."

Despite her original career path not being the one for her, Benedict acknowledges all that she was able to take from that experience and work into her current career.

"Those years were not in any way wasted," Benedict said.

"The skills I utilized and developed as a lawyer, researching and putting together a compelling narrative on behalf of the client are skills that I use every single day, as I write about these historic women whose legacies deserve to be told," Benedict said.

"It's just that my clients are now historical," she added.

She then began taking graduate classes at Columbia and NYU.

"And then one day this non-writer had an idea for a story," Benedict said, "and I started walking down the riskier, but much more authentic path of writing fiction about unknown historical women. Once you start looking for them, you find them everywhere. You find them in newspaper articles; I often find them while researching another book."

"You find them in the shadows very often," she said.

Many of the women that Benedict covers are responsible for a large array of today's cutting-edge technology such as Hedy Lamarr's contributions that lead to the development of wifi, to Rosalind Franklin, who was instrumental in the understanding of DNA, which ultimately lent itself to the quick development of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

Benedict, who also co-writes with Victoria Christopher Murray, places a special emphasis on bringing to light the stories of minority women that time has forgotten or brushed aside.

Their novel, "The First Ladies" chronicles the historic, ground and barrier-breaking friendship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American born to former slaves.

Bethune would go on to work closely with the Roosevelt administration, helping to create the Federal Council on Colored Affairs, among other high achievements.

Benedict's appreciation of her role in helping these unknown women gain newfound appreciation is palpable.

"It's such a gift to be welcomed by your community, to have readers and book clubs come up to me and talk about the books that they've already read," Benedict said.

"It's such a gift to meet new readers, just introduced to my books for the first time."

"It's especially rewarding because I feel so strongly about the work that I do," Marie said. "I read about these women who have been lost to the past, women who really had been lost in the detritus of history and should have every opportunity on Earth to have their stories told. And I get to introduce them to modern theaters, and to have them be celebrated is really special."

The Author Gala is the James V. Brown Library's only fundraising event, and also featured an auction with all proceeds from the event and the auction benefiting the programs and services of the library, according to a press release.

To find out all that the James V. Brown Library has to offer, please check out jvbrown.edu.

For more information on the vast array of Marie Benedict's works, please visit her website, www.authormariebenedict.com.