Melissa H. Cronin | The Peach: A Memoir of Trauma, Survival, and Forgiveness

About this event

Phoenix Books is excited to host author Melissa H. Cronin at Phoenix Books Burlington for an event on Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 PM for a discussion about her latest book The Peach: A Memoir of Trauma, Survival, and Forgiveness. A former neonatal intensive care nurse, Melissa H. Cronin is a creative writer, journalist, pedestrian advocate, Irish fiddler, gardener, and nature artist. She received her MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Recognized as a Notable Mention in The Best American Essays (2019) and a recipient of a Vermont Studio Center Merit Grant and a Vermont Arts Council Development Grant, her work has appeared in various mainstream newspapers, book series, magazines, and literary journals. Melissa lives with her husband in the Champlain Islands. You can find her at http://melissacronin.com/ . About the book: On an ordinary summer morning in July 2003, Melissa Cronin walked through the Santa Monica Farmers' Market, reaching for a ripe peach. In the next instant, an out-of-control vehicle tore through the crowded market, leaving ten people dead and dozens more injured. Cronin survived. Yet survival, as she soon discovered, was only the beginning of a far longer journey. With uncommon honesty, and extraordinary grace, Cronin chronicles the years that followed, years shaped by traumatic brain injury, grief, fractured memory, resilience, and the difficult, often mysterious work of forgiveness. Her memoir moves beyond catastrophe toward a deeper meditation on identity, compassion, and the fragile architecture of a life rebuilt after unimaginable loss. The Peach is not defined by tragedy. It is illuminated by humanity. Again and again, Cronin bears witness to acts of compassion that emerged amid devastation: strangers who refused to walk away, physicians and nurses whose vocation became an expression of hope, friends and family who carried her through the long seasons of recovery, and fellow survivors who understood what words alone could never fully convey. These moments accumulate pretty quietly, revealing something larger than the accident itself--that healing is rarely an individual achievement. More often, it is a gift carried within the lives of others. At Saint Julian Press and Mnemosyne Books, we have long believed that literature serves not merely to entertain but to deepen our capacity for attention, compassion, and moral imagination. The finest memoirs do more than preserve memory; they expand our understanding of the human condition. Melissa Cronin has written such a memoir. Her prose is luminous without sentimentality, reflective without abstraction, and courageous without self-importance. She neither minimizes suffering nor offers easy consolation. Instead, she invites readers to the quiet, demanding work of becoming fully human after life has been broken open. In an age often dominated by outrage, accusation, and division. The Peach reminds us of another possibility: that mercy endures, that forgiveness can coexist with memory, and that even our deepest wounds may become places where compassion enters the world. It is, finally, a testament to the enduring truth that we belong to one another. DATE: Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM LOCATION: Phoenix Books Burlington, 89 Church Street, Burlington, VT TICKETS: Tickets are FREE. Phoenix Books has adopted an RSVP-based system, and you can RSVP through the Seven Days Tickets website. Your RSVP grants you a $3.00 off coupon for The Peach: A Memoir of Trauma, Survival, and Forgiveness that can be used during the day of the event! BOOKS: Copies of The Peach: A Memoir of Trauma, Survival, and Forgiveness by Melissa H. Cronin can be purchased during the day of the event.

Who

• Melissa H. CroninAuthor

The book

• The Peach: A Memoir of Trauma, Survival, and ForgivenessMelissa H. Cronin

Venue

Phoenix Books Burlington

191 Bank St, Burlington, VT 05401

Venue website

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