When Mary Granville Pendarves Delany invented the art of collage in 1772, she was 72 years old. How did it happen that a woman in her eighth decade invented a brand new art form? We will track instances of creativity in Delany's life, since she first cut silhouettes as a child through the succeeding decades of her life, and we'll discover some truths about the imaginative life as a person grows - and grows old. It's been said that Delany would have come to her artwork earlier if certain obstacles had not been in her way. Not so! Some things take living long enough to do.

Molly Peacock is a widely anthologized poet, essayist and creative nonfiction writer. In addition to The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72, she has published six books of poetry, a memoir called Paradise, Piece By Piece and How To Read A Poem and Start A Poetry Circle. She is the editor of a collection of creative nonfiction, The Private I: Privacy in a Public World, the co-editor of Poetry in Motion: One Hundred Poems from the Subways and Buses, and one of the creators of New York's Poetry in Motion program.

The Writing Life events in 2013 were generously underwritten by Jenny Lawrence.