LEWISTON — The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing at Central Maine Medical Center will present “The Foremost Good Fortune: An Evening with Susan Conely,” a free workshop, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at CMMC, 12 High St., conference room H.

Conley’s cancer memoir, “The Foremost Good Fortune,” tells a story about hope after cancer and how a cancer diagnosis can affect each member of a family differently. She will read short passages from her book and talk about her experiences as a survivor, a mother and a writer.

Conley is an American nonfiction writer, novelist, poet and creative writing professor. She resides in Portland with her young sons, Thorne and Aidan, and her husband, Tony Kieffer. She earned her BA from Middlebury College and her MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University.

The book chronicles her family’s move to Beijing, a cross-cultural odyssey through modern China, and Conley’s experience of breast cancer there.

Required preregistration is available by calling the Dempsey Center at 795-8250, toll-free 1-877-336-7287 or online at www.dempseycenter.org.