Many people, when they first meet Elizabeth Ellis are at least a little in awe. She is a powerful and compassionate woman, with a soft voice. She kindly agreed to sit down with me at the 2016 National Storytelling Network Conference. The interview, the conversation began in the hall as we were heading to a quite room, before I got my gear set up. We sat down, Elizabeth got some water and we began to talk. The interview went well over two hours. I edited it down to keep it 'on topic.' We storytellers can meander along a winding path of conversation and take many side roads!

Elizabeth talks history, compassion, authenticity and story. She reminisces about driving 200 miles to see another storyteller - it was just what you did; how she worked with other storytellers, and the importance of story. Because of the length of the conversation, it is broken into two episodes. The first (this) episode is about 55 minutes and part two is around an hour!

Enjoy!

Elizabeth's website: http://www.elizabethellis.com/index.shtml