FL JCC Virtual Author Event - Diane Shader Smith

Please join us for our FL JCC’s Summer Virtual Author Series.

Monday, June 23 at 3:30 pm with Diane Shader Smith, presenting Diary of a Dying Girl, by Mallory Smith.

Salt in My Soul is a tes­ta­ment to love, deter­mi­na­tion, and the heal­ing pow­er of mem­oir as med­i­cine. It’s a clas­sic com­ing of age sto­ry about a young woman named Mal­lo­ry fig­ur­ing out how to live ful­ly while dying. In so doing, she secret­ly doc­u­ment­ed her inner thoughts in her diary while throw­ing her­self at life: friend­ships in ele­men­tary school, boyfriends and sports teams in high school, the lit­tle trav­el her dis­ease would allow. She attend­ed col­lege and explored the wider world, one that was just beyond her grasp. She became a devot­ed envi­ron­men­tal­ist, see­ing a star­tling and vivid metaphor for her declin­ing health in the destruc­tion of our world. All the while Mal­lo­ry fought. And wrote; about her fears, her loves, her pain, her depres­sion, her hopes, and gave voice to the many mil­lions who strug­gle with invis­i­ble or vis­i­ble ill­ness, turn­ing her pain into pur­pose. In Mallory’s final days, her father uncov­ered a long-for­got­ten treat­ment that is now chang­ing the world of med­i­cine but, heart­break­ing­ly, it came too late to save his daughter.

Mal­lo­ry Smith

Mal­lo­ry Smith was a writer and envi­ron­men­tal jour­nal­ist. A 2014 Phi Beta Kap­pa grad­u­ate of Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, Mal­lo­ry pro­duced radio doc­u­men­taries for Green Grid Radio and news fea­tures for NPR through KCRW. She played club vol­ley­ball for Stan­ford and was a three-sport var­si­ty ath­lete in high school. Diary of a Dying Girl is adapt­ed from Mallory’s mem­oir, Salt in My Soul. Before her pass­ing, Mal­lo­ry launched the social media cam­paign Lunges4Lungs and raised over $5 mil­lion with her par­ents for research. She passed away at the age of twen­ty-five on Novem­ber 15, 2017, two months after receiv­ing a dou­ble lung trans­plant. All pro­ceeds from her intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty will go to Mallory’s Lega­cy Fund, housed at the Cal­i­for­nia Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation.

Topic: Diary of a Dying Girl by Mallory Smith presented by Diane Shader Smith

Time: Jun 23, 2025 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82711288665?pwd=yhcYS7oQyyfd4bJohCRDOhDeruvw4z.1

Meeting ID: 827 1128 8665

Passcode: MALLORY