Acclaimed storyteller Loren Niemi will engage renowned scholar Jack Zipes in a conversation about the role of the storyteller today. Among the topics they plan to discuss is the role of the storyteller in enabling school children to become storytellers of their own lives. Dr. Zipes will also share his enthusiam for doing research into the history of forgotten writers and illustrators--a practice that can reward any storyteller. And who knows where else the conversation may lead?
Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. In addition to his scholarly work, he is an active storyteller in public schools, founded Neighborhood Bridges at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, and has written fairy tales for children and adults. Some of his recent publications include: The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (2012), The Golden Age of Folk and Fairy Tales: From the Brothers Grimm to Andrew Lang (2013), and Grimm Legacies: The Magic Power of Fairy Tales (2014). Most recently he has published The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales (2017), Tales of Wonder: Retelling Fairy Tales through Picture Postcards (2017), Fearless Ivan and His Faithful Horse Double-Hump (2018), The Hundred Riddles of the Fairy Bellaria (2018), and Slap-Bam, The Art of Governing Men: Édouard Laboulaye’s Political Fairy Tales (2018). In 2019, he founded his own press called Little Mole and Honey Bear and has published The Giant Ohl and Tiny Tim (2019), Johnny Breadless (2020), Yussuf the Ostrich (2020), and Keedle the Great and All You Want to Know about Fascism (2020).
Loren Niemi began as a “child fibber” but soon realized he was less interested in telling lies than in improving the truth... He is an innovative storyteller, poet and the author of What Haunts Us, the 2020 winner of the Midwest Book Award for “Sci-Fi / Horror / Fantasy / Paranormal” fiction as well as the award winning The New Book of Plots and Point of View and the Emotional Arc of Stories on structuring narratives, and the critically acclaimed Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories. Loren is a member of the Story Arts board of directors and outgoing chair of the National Storytelling Network.
This event is open to everyone via Zoom teleconferencing. After registering, you'll receive an email message with the Zoom link.
Registration is free, although donations are appreciated to support SAM's virtual programming. The suggested donation is $10.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.