Everyone has a story, even if they don’t think they do. This is a truth Olivia Savoie has long heralded.
Ms. Savoie is the founder, along with her husband Joshua, of Raconteur Life Story Writing based in Louisiana. The purpose behind the business is in the name: to write the stories of people’s lives. But it is more than a business, or even a passion. What Ms. Savoie is doing is in many ways a civic duty.
While studying English and history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, she decided to interview her grandmothers and write their personal histories. Perhaps fortuitously, her collegiate studies, along with her familial initiative, joined forces to create a career in writing family histories.
“Once I realized what the books meant to my grandmothers and my own family, I decided I had
to produce keepsake books for other grandparents,” she said.
Ms. Savoie has gone on to produce dozens of books for a wide range of clients, whom she calls “story tellers.” Most of her story tellers are indeed in their later years, even upwards into their 90s. Her oldest story teller was 105—proof that it is never too late to tell your story.
