The Past Forward Memoir Writing Group will be giving a public reading schedule for Nov. 8 at 1:30 p.m. at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library.

The event is titled “Past Forward- the Audio Version” and will feature some of the members of the memoir writing group sharing stories and poems relating to personal life experiences, past memories and other relatable life experiences.

The group was formed 2008 after members attended a memoir writing class held by the Academy of Lifelong Learning.

Jannett Messenger, the coordinator of the daytime Past Forward writing group, said the daytime group meets at the end of each month.

“We are a memoir writing group and we’ve been in existence since 2008. There were a few of us that attended one of the first class that was sponsored by the Academy of Life(long) Learning about memoir writing and there were about six of us enrolled in the class,” Messenger said. “When it was finished, we were all winded up and went home and wrote memoirs and we would see each other ever once in a while and ask how we were doing on our writing and none of us had really gotten started on anything.”

The group has also released two books, the first titled “Occasional Writers” was released in 2011 and the group’s latest work, titled “The Memory Pool,” was released earlier this year.

“They’re just a series of stories,” Messenger said. “There’s no particular theme to them, it’s a variety of short stories.”

Messenger said the public reading is open to anyone who is interested in the reading.

“Any age will enjoy it, from children, teens, young adults, seniors and adults,” Messenger said. “It’s just kind of a family orientated type of program, one that I think will appeal to every age group.”

The group is made up approximately 25 to 30 members and features both daytime and nighttime writing groups. Daiva Markelis, an English professor at Eastern, leads the nighttime group.

“I think everybody has a story to tell, they’ve experience different things throughout their lifetime,” Messenger said. “It’s just a way of recording it, being able to past it along to others.”

“Past Forward-the Audio Version” will take place at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library.

Luis Martinez can be reached 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu