Olin Dodson at Collected Works Bookstore

Event Description

Collected Works welcomes Olin Dodson for a special reading and discussion of his memoir, Melissa's Gift.

Melissa's Gift begins in August 1990 when Dodson, a solitary, unmarried man, received a phone call from a stranger who informed him that he was the father of an eleven-year-old child. The girl, Melissa, lived with her mother, a housekeeper, in a small town in Western Costa Rica. Melissa had the incurable disease known as cistic fibrosis. Written with elegance, beauty, and power, Melissa's Gift is an unforgettable story and a deeply moving reading experience.

Alfredo Vigil, M.D., FAFFP, calls Melissa's Gift "An unflinching, first-person account of a man's fight for the life and love of his daughter... Rarely have I encountered a story like this, told with such raw emotion and power."

Olin Dodson holds graduate degrees from Sonoma State University and San Francisco Theological Seminary. A licensed psychotherapist, teacher, consultant, and public speaker, he has traveled extensively in Central America for the past twenty years. Dodson resides in Santa Fe, where he is currently working on a sequel to Melissa's Gift.