Biography
Heather Forest, PhD, is an award-winning storyteller, author and musician. A pioneer in the American storytelling renaissance she has appeared in theatres, schools, literature conferences, and major storytelling festivals throughout the United States and abroad since 1975. A modern day bard, her dynamic fusion of original music, poetry, and the sung and spoken word brings multicultural folktales to life in the imagination of her listeners.
She is a recipient of the Circle of Excellence Award presented by the National Storytelling Network for her performance skill and the 2021 Talking Leaves Award for her contributions to storytelling literature. An author of eight folktale recordings and ten folktale books, her published work has earned an American Library Association Notable Record Award, two Parent's Choice Gold Awards, and three Storytelling World Honor Awards. Her musical monologue EARTHSONG won Best Composer in the 2021 United Solo Festival off Broadway. She views storytelling as both a fine art and a powerful tool for positive social change.
Recordings
Heather Forest has recorded eight albums of storytelling. "Songspinner: Folktales and Fables Sung and Told" won a 1982 National Library Association Notable Record Award. "Tales of Womenfolk," a collection of feminist folktales, features courageous and resourceful heroines from world folklore. Two collections of musical folktales for younger listeners, both "Sing Me A Story" and "Tales Around the Hearth," present classic nursery stories and have received the National Parenting Publications Gold Award for 2006. Her recording, "The Eye of the Beholder," featuring a unique musical version of "Beauty and the Beast” won the 1993 Parent's Choice Gold Classic Award. Her musical collection of Aesop's fables, "The Animals Could Talk," published with a libretto, won a 1994 Parent's Choice Gold Award. "Wonder Tales from Around the World," with cello accompaniment by Emily Metcalf received a 1996 Storytelling World Honor Recording Award. Its sequel, "World Tales of Wisdom & Wonder" received a 2003 Storytelling World Honor Recording Award.
Books
Ms. Forest has written seven children's picture books based on folktales. Her first book, "The Baker's Dozen: A Colonial American Tale" (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988) won an American Institute for Graphic Arts Award and was selected by the Children's Literature Center of the Library of Congress to be part of a traveling book exhibit sent to Russia in celebration of the 1989 Year of the Young Reader. Her second book, "The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies: An Old Tale From Scotland" (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990) is a Junior Library Guild Selection and was chosen as a Pick of the Lists for 1990 by the American Booksellers Association. "A Big Quiet House: A Yiddish Folktale from Eastern Europe," (August House, 1996) was an American Booksellers' Pick of the Lists. Her newest picture books, published by August House include "Stone Soup" (1998) a Parent’s Choice Selection, "Feathers: A Jewish Tale from Eastern Europe" (2005), "The Little Red Hen" (2006), chosen as a New York Public Library's 100 Best Children's Books for Reading and Sharing, and "The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind: An Aesop's Fable" (2008).
Ms. Forest's first full-length folktale collection, "Wonder Tales from Around the World" (August House), won the Storytelling World Anthology Award for 1996. Its sequel, "Wisdom Tales from Around the World," received the 1997 Storytelling World Anthology Award. Her newest anthology, "Ancient and Epic Tales from Around the World published in 2016 by August House has won a NAPPA award, a Parents' Choice Award, a Storytelling World Award, and the Anne Izard Storyteller's Choice Award.
In 1997, Ms. Forest was an early recipient of the coveted Circle of Excellence Oracle Award presented by the National Storytelling Network.
Her many performance credits include The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., The National Storytelling Festival, TN, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland, Tales of Graz Festival, Austria, and the Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival, New Zealand. She has been a featured teller at major storytelling festivals throughout the United States, a keynote speaker at the National Storytelling Congress (USA), and has taught storytelling and communication arts seminars as a guest lecturer at universities and at the National Storytelling Institute (USA) in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
Ms. Forest holds a Masters Degree in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University and a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change from Antioch University . She is founder and Executive Director of Story Arts, a cultural arts organization in Huntington , New York , U.S.A. that presents storytelling concerts and workshops in schools, theatres, and community centers in the Long Island , New York area.
For further information about concerts or workshops contact:
Story Arts
P.O. Box 354
Huntington , NY 11743
United States (631) 271-2511
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