LEWISTON — Jean Flahive of South Portland, acclaimed Maine author, will be the featured speaker at USM’s Lewiston Auburn Senior College’s Food for Thought luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 10, at 51 Westminster St. The public is invited.

Flahive, who has a lifelong interest in the Civil War and Maine history, will be speaking about her most recent novel, “Railroad to the Moon, Elijah’s Story.” Set in post-Civil War Maine, and using historical realities, her novel weaves a tale around Oren Cheney, founder and first president of Bates College, who helps runaway slave Elijah fulfill his dream.

While Cheney’s public life is most visibly associated with the founding of Bates College, Flahive will focus her remarks on Cheney’s life-long commitment to the abolition of slavery and his remarkable role, as highlighted in the novel, in securing access to education for emancipated slaves in Maine and beyond.

The author will share her personal experience as a writer of historical fiction and how her research led her to Oren Cheney, who she describes as one of Maine’s forgotten heroes.

Jean is a former dean of students at Central Maine Community College, a former trustee of the University of Maine System and has worked as a grant writer for numerous municipalities and nonprofits.

She’s the author of “Billy Boy, the Sunday Soldier of the 17th Maine” and a co-author of “Remember Me, Tomah Joseph’s Gift to Franklin Roosevelt,” which won the Moonbeam Gold Award for Best Multi-Cultural Children’s Picture Book in 2009, and also a co-author of “The Galloping Horses of Willowbrook,” which was a finalist in the 2012 Maine Literary Awards.

Senior College, now in its 17th year, presents the monthly 11:30 luncheon program in the Function Room 170 at 51 Westminster St. The cost, which includes lunch, is $7 with advance reservation or $8 at the door.

Reservations must be made by noon on Wednesday, April 8, by calling 753-6510. Any late callers will be considered “at the door.”