Help Alanna Nash write Loving Elizabeth: A Memoir...

This fundraiser is to support Alanna Nash in writing a memoir, tentatively titled Loving Elizabeth: A Memoir of Trauma, Addiction, and Forgiveness. The nonfiction book is based on the author's 16-year relationship with a warm, witty, and brilliant woman who was working on her Ph.D. when she lost her way and spiraled. People were "crazy drawn" to Elizabeth in high school, at camp, in college, and throughout her life because she was unlike anyone they had ever known—highly creative, unfailingly kind, hilariously funny, and known for her daring antics and rebellious nature. But underneath it all, she was haunted and self-medicated her pain. The book will spotlight the opioid epidemic of the last decades, but more than anything, it is about one person’s struggle, and the efforts of so many who tried to help her. It will hopefully lift the stigma of mental illness, addiction, and substance abuse. And it will highlight the life-affirming value of the unbreakable bonds of friendship, particularly with the author, Elizabeth’s devoted pals in her adopted state of Virginia, and her loyal sister group from college who have stayed close for 50 years. At its heart, this is a searing love story.

(Photo credits | Top: Randall Elkins; Bottom: Alanna Nash)

Alanna is an award-winning freelance writer and author, having begun her career at age 14 in 1965 with an article in Seventeen magazine. She has worked in this profession ever since, producing thousands of magazine articles and website stories (Vanity Fair, AARP the Magazine, Southern Living, Rolling Stone, Reader’s Digest, etc.), newspaper pieces (The New York Times, USA Today), and bestselling books for such publishers as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Alfred A. Knopf, E.P. Dutton, and Penguin Random House, among others.