Dr. Colleen J. McElroy
“The storyteller is almost a mythic figure – part philosopher, part artist, part magician – a cultural role that provides a link to the past and a bridge to the future.
Filmmakers allow the storyteller to become a full-fledged character, and present a vision in which the viewer responds by imagining unseen worlds and those that inhabit that space.
The storyteller, like the sage, can incorporate with some immediacy, current social issues that affect both adults and children in the community.”
-Dr. Colleen J. McElroy
Dr. McElroy lives in Seattle where she is Professor Emeritus, English, at the University of Washington. In addition to serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Seattle Review from 1995-2006, McElroy is a distinguished poet whose collection of poems Sleeping with the Moon received a 2008 PEN/Oakland National Literary Award.
Interested in language and her roots, McElroy has also published a memoir of her life growing up in St. Louis and a book about storytelling in Madagascar. In her presentation, “By Word of Mouth,” she will examine the craft of storytelling as applied to the graphic representation of storytellers in films.
Funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Wisconsin. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Events
Friday, October 22, 4:00 p.m., “Readings from Sleeping with the Moon and Other Poems,” Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Saturday, October 23, at 1:15 p.m. – “By Word of Mouth,” Eau Claire Room, L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library
Selected Works
- A Long Way from St. Louie (Coffee House Press, 1997)
- Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagasgar (University of Washington Press, 1998)
- Page to Page: Retrospectives from the Seattle Review (University of Washington Press, 2006)
- Sleeping with the Moon ( Illinois Poetry Series, 2007)
Web Site
http://faculty.washington.edu/dragnldy/poet.html
