One Story, Two Books: An Evening with Memoirist Donna Keel Armer

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host Donna Keel Armer author of the travel memoir Solo in Solento, on Thursday, March 16, at 5:00 p.m. Donna’s talk, “One Story, Two Books,” will explore her globetrotting experiences as her book was translated into Italian as Un’americana in Salento and she was invited on a recent book tour of Southern Italy and Sicily. Free and open to the public, this special author event will be held at the Conroy Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call 843-379-7025 to reserve in advance.

About Solo in Salento
“A sassy and sacred memoir for those sorting out what’s most valuable in life.”—Cassandra King

Desperate to break out of a life haunted by a wretched past, a loss of faith, toxic relationships, a stressful management career, and a slow sink into domestication, Donna Keel Armer craves time away from everything and everyone, including her loving husband. So she tells everyone she is traveling alone to research a novel she intends to write. While in Otranto, Donna masters the complex recycling system of a country where she doesn’t speak the language. By applying these same trash rules to her own life, she discovers that she can sort, recycle, and discard the personal garbage that has plagued her over a lifetime. The book’s universal themes of personal growth and travel invite you to come along on this transformational journey filled with mysterious sacred places, culinary delights, and the possibility of being kidnapped. Readers seeking personal realization, along with active travelers, courageous wannabe travelers, and armchair travelers, will be drawn into the magic.

Donna Keel Armer’s first trip to Italy in 1995 compelled her to return over and over. She fell in love with the place: the mystery, the magic, the music, the martyrs, and the marvelous food. She hoped one day she’d share these treasures with the rest of the world. Donna graduated cum laude with a double major in psychology and social sciences with graduate studies in theology. Donna has published numerous articles, along with her photography, on travel, food, human interest, and home and garden in South Carolina magazines, and teamed up with the Order of the Sons of Italy in Columbia, SC, to produce Bella Cucina Italiana, a cookbook featuring her photography. She was president of a hospitality business she and her husband created in Southwest Georgia. They now live in Beaufort, where she volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center and Hunting Island State Park.

Learn more about Donna Keel Armer at https://donnaarmer.com. Learn more about the Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.