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A storyteller’s memoir based on cardinal holidays …
days of celebration
infused with an artist’s insight

"Elizabeth Ellis's gift, and a rare gift it is, is to illuminate the universal through her honest explorations of the deeply personal.   Sometimes hilarious, sometimes powerful and  moving, her stories are always true to her own journey and her own remarkable storyteller's voice."
           --Gayle Ross, storyteller and author, Cherokee Nation, OK

"Elizabeth Ellis is a storyteller who touches her audience in such a deep, caring way that you can almost hear them sigh, let out a deep breath and think to themselves, 'she knows.' We have all waited for a long time for these wonderful stories of the human spirit and its triumph to be published and the wait is over thanks to Parkhurst Brothers."
            --Dan Keding, storyteller and author, Urbana, Illinois

"A glorious, memorable brew of witty, irreverent, profoundly wise, and deeply sacred autobiographical tales, served up in Elizabeth’s lyrical, insightful, humorous style.  Here we have written proof that the divine Miss E is both a master storyteller and an unofficial national treasure."
            --Geraldine Buckley, storyteller and pastor

“Elizabeth Elllis has long been one of my favorite tellers, especially when it comes to her personal stories. I don't know of anyone who can do a better job of crafting and then telling the sort of down-home, engaging,amusing, moving, and thought-provoking tales that characterize her performances and stick to you like a burr.”
            --Joseph Bruchac, storyteller and author
 
"From her childhood in Appalachia to her adult life in Texas, Elizabeth Ellis has soaked up life's big stories, re-shaped them with compassion and wisdom, and now retells them with humor, honesty, and gentleness.  Readers and listeners can do no better than to sit at her feet, feeling glad to be human and ready to be kind."
            --Jimmy Neil Smith, Founder of the National Storytelling Festival (USA)
 
"Elizabeth Ellis is pure psychic of a storyteller.  She somehow is able to always appropriately comfort the afflicted or afflict the comfortable ... often at the same time!"
            --Donald Davis, storyteller and author
 
“Elizabeth Ellis’s words jump off the page and into the secret part of your heart where you keep treasured memories and sacred feelings. She sings to you of her life and the lives of others with whom she intersects. Compassionate and thought provoking, an Appalachian/Texan with a whole-world point of view with a little rabble rousing thrown in, Elizabeth Ellis is a true master of the written and spoken word.”
            --Robin Bady, storyteller and arts educator, Brooklyn, New York
 
“In the forty-some-years of the (so-called) American storytelling revival, Elizabeth Ellis has been one of our most treasured truth tellers. Here she tells her own truths – some full of hope and others hard to hear. But in the hearing or the reading of these narratives, we are called to resilience, generosity, wisdom and love.”
            --Milbre Burch, storyteller and workshop leader
Paperback • $18.00 • 978-1-62491-040-1
176 Pages @ 5.5” x  8.5”
E-book • $13.00 • 978-1-62491-041-
Buy This Book
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AN INTERVIEW WITH ELIZABETH ELLIS
The title of this book says that it is a “storyteller's memoir.” When did you become a storyteller?
 
The truest answer to that question is that I have been a storyteller all my life. I think I came out of the womb telling stories.  As a child, I needed to talk as much as I needed to breathe.  I got in trouble at school every day. Every single solitary day. Always for the same thing: talking too much. My teachers often said to me, “What on earth will you do when you grow up? All you do is run your mouth.” I am grateful that I thought of something.
 
In 1969 came to Dallas to work for the Dallas Public Library.  Storytelling was the part of my job I liked the best. Some days it was the only part I liked.  In 1978 I attended the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee with my old friend Gayle Ross.  We had never heard of anyone making their living as a storyteller.  On the long car ride back to Texas, we kept saying, “We could do that.  We could do that.” About the time we crossed the bridge that spans the Mississippi River, “We could do that.” turned into “I'll do it if you will.”  By the time we got to Dallas the decision was pretty much made that we would quit our regular jobs and become professional storytellers.
 
Did each of you embark on a solo storytelling career?
 
No, we began as tandem storytellers, telling together as the Twelve Moon Storytellers. We had heard The Folktellers (Barbara Freeman and Connie Reagan Blake) at the Festival. Their work had a big influence on us. At the time I don't think either of us would have had the nerve to start out on our own.  It felt much safer to have a partner when jumping off the cliff, a sort of Butch and  Sundance  concept, though I wouldn't want to venture which one of us was Butch, and which was Sundance.
 
How long did you work together?
 
Four or five years.  It was so hard to get work as a storyteller back then it was impossible to make enough money to support our needs. I had kids. Gayle had a horse. They all needed shoes.  We needed to go our separate ways in order to pay the bills.  Each of us has developed a solo career. Gayle has become a widely respected Cherokee storyteller, focusing most of her energy on sharing Cherokee stories and culture.
 
Are all the stories in this book stories you have told?
 
I have stories I tell from the stage. I have lots more stories that I tell informally. The “Old Christmas” story is the one I tell informally. Though I have told it many times, I have never shared it from the stage. The others have all been part of public performances.
Photo by Paul Porter
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More about Elizabeth
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  • Home
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Books
    • Storytelling >
      • Rafts, Raccoons, and Revelations
      • Social Action Stories
      • Beyond Brick and Bone
      • Stories of a Forest Ranger
      • Read and Tell Stories
      • The House at the Top of the Bottoms
      • How the Rabbit Lost its Tail
      • Speak Peace
      • Storytwisting
      • Under the Oaken Bough
      • The Radical Act of Storytelling
      • Dancing on Blades
      • Further Adventures of the Boo Baby Girl
      • Aunty Lily
      • Telling Twain
      • Distilling Hope book
      • Beyond the Sword Maiden
      • Every Day a Holiday
      • From Plot to Narrative
      • A Bridge of Stories
      • A New Pair of Wings
      • Trail Guide to a Crooked Heart
      • Hot Wind, Boiling Rain
      • Beyond the Briar Patch
      • The Price of Three Stories
      • How to Fool a Cat
      • Boo-Tickle Tales
      • You're On!
      • Story by Story
      • Playing with Stories
      • Eye to the Sky
      • Storytelling Tips
      • The Killdeer
      • Barrio Princess
      • Gratitude
      • Belfast Girl
      • Social Studies in the Storytelling Classroom
      • The New Book of Plots
      • Dancing at the Crossroads
      • Old China Through the Eyes of a Storyteller
      • Figler, My Imaginary Friend
      • The Boo Baby Girl
      • The Blow Dried Cat
      • Figler, My Imaginary Friend
      • Cripple Joe book
      • The Stable Boy
      • Stories Live! DVD
    • Novels >
      • Pressing Freedom novel
      • Euphrates Dance novel
      • Hitler, My Father
      • Living in Harmony
      • Little Man
      • French Roots
      • Sweet Hope fiction
      • The Boys from Possum Grape
      • Less Than Charming
      • Bud Parrott
      • President Trump Sells California
      • Comfort
      • Miss Carrie
      • The Thirty-Foot Elvis
      • Madge's Mobile Home Park
      • Jesse Crosse
      • Strange Side of the Tracks
    • Memoirs >
      • Brother Dog
      • Aunty Lily
      • Every Day a Holiday
      • The Killdeer
      • Eye to the Sky
      • Barrio Princess
      • Belfast Girl
      • Born to Fish, Bred to Hunt
      • Speed Trap
    • Art/Poetry >
      • A Visual Guide to Classical Art Theory
      • The Stone Circle Poems
      • The Last Pickled Beets
      • oh, touch me there
      • We Who Battle Demons
      • Bicycle Cowboy
      • The Aesthetic Astronaut
    • Psychology >
      • In Sheep's Clothing--Spanish Edition
      • In Sheep's Clothing
      • The Science of Shame
      • Character Disturbance
      • Dancing at the Crossroads
      • Distilling Hope
      • We Who Battle Demons
      • Gratitude
      • The Heart of the Wedding
      • Educating Angels
    • Non Fiction >
      • Point of View and the Emotional Arc of Stories
      • Go Deep
      • The Vital Realities for 2020 and Beyond
      • The Road to Marion Town
      • Social Studies in the Storytelling Classroom
      • Educating Angels
      • Speed Trap
      • Trails of Central Arkansas
      • Trails of Little Rock
      • Betting the Earth
      • The Chicken Came First
      • Mr. Chairman: The Life and Legacy of Wilbur D. Mills
      • Simple, Not Easy
      • Cubs Fans' Leadership Secrets
      • Listen to Your Work
      • The World Bank Unveiled
      • Kingdom at Any Cost
      • Thought for the Day
      • Once You Get Through the Mountains, the Land Opens Up
  • Contact