Last Friday saw us back in storytelling territory when our friend the eminent and highly regarded teller Mary Hamilton visited the bookstore to promote her book Kentucky Folktales. We last met up with Mary and her husband Charles when we were ‘booking down the road’ back in January and stayed with them in their home in Frankfort KY.

Many of you will know that Wendy plied her trade as a professional storyteller for many years in the US, Canada, Scotland and England, and is a past member of the boards of the National Storytelling Network here in the US and the Scottish Storytelling Forum. So Wendy’s and Mary’s paths have intersected a fair few times over the years and it was a delight to welcome her to our bookstore.

How wonderful it was again to be part of an intimate gathering of folk sharing the joy of the spoken word and living stories that have been passed down from generation to generation including at least one that had ‘crossed the pond’ from Europe. In the Q&A session following the readings and tellings we had a fascinating discussion about the difference between those things and the challenges for a teller in writing down stories and then reading those stories that she had originally told orally.

There’s a big opportunity for bookstores to host storytellers, and not just for kids’ events. We always have storytelling for Valentine’s Day and Halloween in our store, with the first half hour for kids and the remaining time very definitely NOT for them. It’s another great way to connect with your community and that community has lots of stories to share.