Why BrightSide exists.
To make sure a family’s stories are kept while the person who lived them can still tell them.
It began with a grandfather’s stories.
My grandfather told the same stories over and over. I’d heard some so often I could finish them in my head before he got to the end, and it never once occurred to me to write any of it down. He was right there. Why would I?
I can still picture him exactly. His voice, the way he held himself, how he’d start laughing before the punchline. What I lost is everything underneath. The stories that explained how he became that man.
What I have now are fragments. A town he lived in. A name that came up more than once. Something hard he went through that I know only the outline of. I know who he ended up being. I can’t tell you how he got there, and he was the only one who could have told me.
Losing him was always going to happen. Losing the rest of it didn’t have to. That went slowly, in pieces, and I never noticed it going until it was already gone.
I started BrightSide Books so other families don’t have to learn that the way I did. Someone’s life, in their own words, recorded while they’re still here to tell it, so that when their grandchildren go looking for them, there’s something to find.
Alex Alickolli Founder, BrightSide Books
We listen first.
Every biography begins with conversations. The interviewer follows the story where it goes, and the book is built around what your parent chooses to tell.
How a project is handled
BrightSide coordinates every commission, from the first conversation to the delivery of the finished books.
- Interviews
- Conducted by professional interviewers or trained specialists.
- Writing and editing
- Through BrightSide’s editorial process.
- Design and restoration
- Book design and photograph restoration, through BrightSide’s production process.
- Printing and binding
- By a professional production partner in New England.
Personal by design.
Each commission is shaped around one person and one family: the depth of the conversations, the voice of the book, and the photographs it holds.
You review the manuscript before anything goes to production, and nothing is decided until you have a written proposal.
Private, by design.
A biography holds a family’s most personal material. We treat it that way, from the first recording to the final proof.
- Never published
- Your family’s book is private. It is never publicly published.
- Never used in marketing
- Client photographs and stories are never used to promote BrightSide.
- Used only for your book
- Interviews and project materials are used only to create the biography you commissioned.
- Approved by you
- The family reviews the manuscript before anything goes to production.
- In writing
- Every commission is covered by a written confidentiality agreement.
While there is still time to ask.
The first step is a private conversation about who the book is for.
Start a conversation