Elinor Benjamin

Readings

Elinor tells orally traditional folktales, fairytales and myths. With small children, the stories often involve repetition and participation. Her favourite myths are the Norse myths, and she has some Mi’kmaq myths in my repertoire and claim Silas Rand, the first collector and translator of these Mi’Kmaq legends, in my Nova Scotia family tree. Elinor loves to tell “big, fat, fairytales”. Some of these can be a half hour long, but no one has ever complained.

Elinor has stories from many different countries, and she likes to travel, so sometimes she ties stories to her travels. For example, while visiting the site of a famous story from Japan, Elinor met a survivor of the Hiroshima atom bomb, and they have established a correspondence, which she has on her website. Partial lists of stories Elinor tells, with summaries, and sources, where available, are on her website.

An age span of no more than about three grade levels is preferred.

Special Equipment:

A microphone is needed if room and/or group is large. Gymnasiums are not an ideal venue for storytelling. School libraries, classrooms, or music rooms are best.

Workshops

Elinor uses a number of games and activities that are both fun and helpful in learning to tell stories. She has developed these activities through six years of working with Western School Board’s Learning through the Arts. Work is done in pairs, larger groups and alone. Elinor also has handouts of resources for finding suitable stories to tell.

Biography

• born in Nova Scotia, lived in New Brunswick, New York, San Francisco, Denmark, London (UK), Ottawa, and London, Ontario, before moving to Corner Brook, Newfoundland in 1979
• interest in oral story telling began over 20 years ago, as the result of a friendship with Newfoundland fiddler and storyteller, Emile Benoit, and f hearing Rita Cox, Bob Barton and Laura Simms at library conferences.
• participates in conferences/workshops whenever possible: Storytellers School of Toronto in 1993 and Laura Simms' Storytelling Residency in California in 1998 are fondly remembered
• Member - and webmaster /administrator - Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada, the national storytellers’ association. Member The Storytellers' School of Toronto and The Canadian Children's Book Centre
• worked as public library administration for 22 years, before retiring in 2001
• employed by Western School District in Corner Brook since 2001, working with Grades 4, 5 and 6 in the Learning through the Arts program (LTTA)
• has performed at Ottawa Storytelling Festival, so St. John's Folk Arts Storytelling Festival, Winterset in Summer Festival in Eastport, Newfoundland, Gros Morne Summer Music Festival (Family show) Sean Dunne Festival in Waterford Ireland, the Dublin Yarnspinners, and toured the Montreal area with TD Canadian Children's Book Week Tour 2003
• has been, for 10 years, host and storyteller at The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, which is the children's program during Corner Brook's famed March Hare Poetry Weekend
• has conducted workshops sessions at The ArtsWork Conference in St. John's and Books for Babies Early Literacy Networking Conference in 2006
• has served on national and provincial arts juries
• broadcast book reviews and chats on local CBC radio for over 10 years during time with public libraries
• is fond of books, cats, travel, literature, languages, gardens, music, all kinds of dance, and trying to play the fiddle - shares old house with husband, Ron, and cats: Clara, Luigi,Tanuis and Amanda Tickle and, sometimes, Sam; teaches a weekly belly dance class at the local Y and directs a small dance troupe called "The Turkish Delights")