Award-winning storyteller,
poet, and essayist, Merna Ann Hecht has built her life work
around the vital role of story and spoken word in all cultures.
Merna takes her work into diverse
settings including a children’s grief center; poetry
and storytelling projects with immigrant and refugee students;
and projects in art museums, facilities for disenfranchised
youth, hospitals and schools. She also presents college
courses on multicultural storytelling and the use of story
and poetry for teaching global compassion. Merna is writing
a book about using storytelling and poetry in working with
grieving children for which she has created an extensive
annotated bibliography of storytelling resources.
She is a recipient of a 2008
National Storytelling Network Brimstone Award for Applied
Storytelling and a 1999 NSN Community Service Award. Her
essays and poetry appear in a number of professional journals,
books and magazines, including The Storytelling Classroom
and Storytelling Magazine.
Merna tells stories from around the world with a special
affection for tales that have themes of compassion, peace-making,
and healing. Her performances are diverse and lively, and
often involve audience participation. She collects Eastern
European tales, Gypsy stories, Yiddish folktales, and ghost
stories of a haunting and elegant nature. Her stories are
just right for intergenerational audiences or at-risk youth,
and special settings such as hospitals and grief centers.
Mailing address:
17904 Westside Hwy SW
Vashon, WA 98070
Telephone Number:
(206) 463-5653 or cell (206) 383-0598
E-mail:
mernaanna@yahoo.com
