Stories
My mother astonishes her family—with a pie
I am a storyteller for all moods. I delight in eccentrics, believe that humor and gravity are good bedfellows, and favor characters who shape admirable lives around unavoidable misfortunes.
I tell colorful stories of the extraordinary lives of ordinary people in northern New England.
I also perform personal and family stories, traditional folktales, and my own modern tales and riffs on well-known classics.
I am an effective storytelling coach and an inspiring leader of workshops on storytelling skills.
Click on any of these photos to hear a story.
Some major performances:
Burnt into Memory: How Brownfield Faced the Fire
a performance created from oral histories I gathered from survivors of the 1947 wildfire that destroyed the town of Brownfield, Maine.
Tangled Lives: Native People and English Settlers in Colonial New England
a presentation that examines our troubled history by juxtaposing Native American oral traditions and stories told by my own New England settler ancestors.
“You are a fantastic storyteller: very powerful and at the same time restrained, emotional but never sentimental, witty even about sad incidents, in short – really wonderful.”
Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Jerusalem
A pioneer Maine settler outwits a tricky peddler
Seventh grade — my first date
“You tell surroundings so well I’m inclined to pull out a chair and sit down in them.”
Gwenda Ledbetter, North Carolina
“So beautifully crafted and told with just the right sense of humor and love—“
Ellie Goldberg, Massachusetts
The real story behind Little Red Riding Hood
Jo Radner 