An Evening of Stories plus a Giveaway

Kathy with author George Dawes Green

Carl and I attended The Moth’s event in Savannah last Thursday night.  The Moth is a not-for-profit storytelling organization started by author George Dawes Green twelve years ago.  I’ve read/heard several different stories as to the significance of the name of The Moth and I’m not really sure which one is true, so I’m not going to repeat any of them.

The theme of Thursday night’s show was Coming Home, since that is essentially what George was doing – coming home to celebrate the publication of his new book, Ravens.  Five people told true stories from their own lives relating to the theme.  The storytellers were:

• Jonathan Ames – the author of several books, including The Extra Man which will be released as a movie next year.  He also created  Bored to Death, which will begin on HBO in September.  He also served as host for the evening.
• Sheri Holman – the author of four books, including The Mammoth Cheese, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.  She is a founding member of The Moth.
• Steve Osborne – a retired New York City police officer.  He was a Lieutenant in the Detective Bureau when he retired.
• Wanda Bullard –  a retired teacher, she currently works with 6th, 7th and 8th graders with emotional disorders.  The story goes that telling stories on her porch was the inspiration for The Moth.  She was the only one of the storytellers I didn’t get to meet.
• George Dawes Green – the author of three books and the founder of The Moth.

Ben Tucker served as the timekeeper.  He is considered one of the Top Ten Bass Players in the world.  It was his job to keep each story under twelve minutes, so the audience wouldn’t get bored.  At ten minutes in, he would pluck a few strings; at eleven minutes he would play a little more.  We were told that if the story went longer than twelve minutes, then Ben and the storyteller would compete for the audience’s attention, but we didn’t get to see that happen.

All of the storytellers were great, each of their stories was unique and they all made us laugh.  This was a great way to spend an evening!  If The Moth performs, near you, make sure you go!  While we were there, I got George to autograph two copies of Ravens – one for me and one to give away.  To enter this giveaway for an autographed copy of RAVENS,  simply leave a comment on this post.  Contest is open worldwide.  I will use random.org to determine the winner.  Contest ends at midnight EST, Sunday August 9, 2009.  Winner will be announced on Monday, August 10, 2009.

Here’s another picture just for fun.  This creature was hanging out in the lagoon that our deck overlooked while we were at the beach.  Carl saw his whole body (which he estimated to be about six feet long), but all I saw was his head and it was about a foot long.

Tomboy