Professional storyteller Priscilla Howe recently received the International Story Bridge Oracle Award at the National Storytelling Summit in Fremont, California. This award recognizes the exemplary work, dedication and spirit of those individuals or groups that promote the art of storytelling in their own country or promote the building of bridges between their country and other countries through the use of storytelling and/or storytelling events. Howe lives in Lawrence, Kansas and travels around the world telling stories to listeners of all ages. She began storytelling as a children’s librarian in Middletown, CT in 1988, before leaving her job in 1993 to move to Lawrence to be a full-time storyteller. She has performed folktales, stories from books and her own stories around the US and in China, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Belgium, Germany, Romania and Bulgaria. She tells stories primarily in English, specializing in stories for English Language Learners, though she has also performed in French and Bulgarian.
Priscilla Howe recently published translations of forty-two Bulgarian folktales, together with introductory essay and notes for teachers and storytellers following each story. Most of the stories she researched and collected while on a Fulbright Scholar grant to Bulgaria. Each folktale expresses an aspect of Bulgarian folk culture, presents characters who are clever enough to avoid ill-conceived courtship, kind enough to esteem even the poorest of neighbors, tricky enough to evade shysters, or sly enough to remain independent in the face of great power. In celebrating these traits and others, the folktales collected in this book honor the character of people. Clever, Kind, Tricky, and Sly: A Bulgarian Folktale Sampler, published by Parkhurst Brothers Publishers Inc is available in book stores and on Amazon.