Kate Farrell MLS, librarian, storyteller, author, and educator, taught language arts in high schools, colleges and published educational materials on storytelling. More recently, Farrell learned the art of written memoir and edited numerous anthologies of personal narratives. But Kate Farrell was a storyteller at an early age. By age ten, she’d tacked signs on telephone poles in her neighborhood, announcing her fairytale play. As a first year teacher, she stumbled on storytelling as the best way to teach literature to inner city kids. By 1970, she’d honed the skill as a new librarian, and in the 1980s, funded and trained teachers in a CA state-wide storytelling project. In the 90s, she published educational materials on the art with big name publishers, like Scholastic and Highlights for Children. In the ever-evolving world of storytelling, Farrell understood by 2005, that personal narrative was the new folklore—so, she wrote and edited memoir anthologies. Farrell’s work is a bridge in storytelling: from traditional folklore to authentic, personal tales.
