Nine years ago, Hope Edelman didn’t quite know where her life was heading. In the midst of marriage difficulties, she came to find that her daughter’s imaginary friend was becoming an unsettling force in the family’s life. The Edelmans took a rather unconventional approach to the predicament by taking a weeklong trip to Belize in search of a healer for their then 3-year-old.

Over the course of this trip, Edelman, her husband, and her daughter discovered the elements of life that make it that much more enjoyable. This was the inspiration for Edelman’s latest work, the memoir The Possibility of Everything.

She will share the story of her family’s journey with an audience at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., at 7 p.m. today, as part of the “Live From Prairie Lights” series.

After earning a degree in journalism at Northwestern University and doing some work in the field, she came to the UI to pursue a master’s degree in creative nonfiction writing in 1992. At the time, such programs were in their early years at a few other schools in addition to the UI. It was what she calls a “renegade” form of writing at that time, and the aura of being a writer in Iowa proved to be very seductive for the young author.

“The real question is why I was a journalist,” Edelman said. “It was really a degree I could use to support myself. Journalism was great as a creative form of expression, but it became very formulaic.”

Her time at the UI was also spent teaching. Katherine White Maguid, who was a practicing attorney when she first took one of Edelman’s courses, also had the dream of being a writer. She followed Edelman to Antioch University in Los Angeles and received a M.F.A. in creative nonfiction writing.

“Hope was an incredibly dedicated mentor, and she provided me with the tools that I needed in order for me to mine the stories I wanted to tell, hone my narrative voice, and direct my passion for writing,” Maguid said.

The Possibility of Everything is Edelman’s fifth book. Her début work, 1994’s Motherless Daughters, is a bestseller that has been translated into seven different languages. She lost her mother at the age of 17, and her first four books center primarily on the effect of losing a parent early in life.

Though she has lived the majority of her years without her own mother, experiencing life as a mother herself, has helped mend what was broken so long ago.

“Being a parent has brought an enormous amount of joy, and that connection that was lost is now renewed with my children,” she said.

Such a life-altering experience has ultimately allowed Edelman to connect on a deeper level with readers like Maguid who may have gone through the same thing.

“She allows her readers to empathize with her in a way that I have never experienced before.”