
Sue Hollingsworth is from the UK and has been performing and teaching storytelling for over 20 years. She is the Director of the Centre for Biographical Storytelling, a Founder of the International School of Storytelling and a Founding Member of the Centre for Narrative Leadership. She is the co-author of the best-selling book The Storyteller's Way: Sourcebook for Inspired Storytelling and is currently finishing another book on telling biographical or personal stories. As a founding member of Friends of Amari she enjoys not only being in the village but also working with stories there. Apart from all this good stuff, she also really enjoys singing, dancing, walking, having fun with the people she works with and loves (often the same thing) and her “free range” lifestyle. You can find out more about Sue by going to www.suehollingsworth.com
Sue Hollingsworth is a Patron of Friends of Amari.
Η Sue Hollingsworth είναι Βρετανίδα με εμπειρία στην αφήγηση και στην διδασκαλία παραμυθιών πάνω από δύο δεκαετίες. Είναι η διευθύντρια του Κέντρου Αυτοβιογραφικής Αφήγησης, ιδρύτρια της Διεθνούς Σχολής Αφήγησης και ιδρυτικό μέλος του Κέντρου για την Αφηγηματική Ηγεσία. Συνυπογράφει το best seller Ο Τρόπος του Αφηγητή: Πηγές για Εμπνευσμένη Αφήγηση και αυτήν την περίοδο τελειώνει ένα ακόμη βιβλίο με θέμα την αφήγηςη αυτοβιογραφικών ή προσωπικών ιστοριών. Ως ιδρυτικό μέλος των Φίλων του Αμαρίου απολαμβάνει όχι μόνο το να βρίσκεται στο Αμάρι αλλα και το να δουλεύει ιστορίες σε αυτό το περιβάλλον. Εκτός από όλα αυτά, της αρέσει επίσης το τραγούδι, ο χορός, το περπάτημα, η παρέα με τους συνεργάτες και αγαπημένους φίλους (πολύ συχνά τα ίδια πρόσωπα) και ο «ελευθέρας βοσκής» τρόπος ζωής της. Μπορείτε να μάθετε περισσότερα για τη Sue αν επισκεφθείτε το www.suehollingsworth.com

HUGH LUPTON’s interest in traditional music, in street theatre, in live poetry, and in myth, resulted in him becoming a professional storyteller in 1981.
For twelve years he toured Britain with the ‘Company of Storytellers’. Their work was instrumental in stimulating a nation-wide revival of interest in storytelling.
Since the mid-nineties he has worked as a solo performer and collaborator. In 2006 he and Daniel were awarded the Classical Association Prize for ‘the most significant contribution to the public understanding of the classics’.
His work with musician Chris Wood has resulted in commissions from Radio 3 and the ‘Song of the Year’ at the BBC folk awards.
He tells stories from many cultures, but his particular passion is for the hidden layers of the British landscape and the stories and ballads that give voice to them.
His first novel ‘The Ballad of John Clare’ was published in 2010, he’s recently finished a second ‘The Assembly of the Severed Head’ (to be published in May 2018).
Hugh Lupton is a Patron of Friends of Amari. http://www.hughlupton.com/

Stella Kassimati is skilled in facilitating workshops that help people of all ages connect with the origins of modern life through Ancient Greece as the cradle of Western Civilization.Using her deep knowledge of Greek Myths, Gods and Goddesses, coupled with a strong connection to her native Crete, Stella leads workshops and provides award winning performances that bring the rich heritage of this ancient culture to life.
Stella's family is in Crete; however her passion for storytelling took her to England in 2002 to train as a professional storyteller at the International School of Storytelling at Emerson College, East Sussex. She now teaches at the School and works around the world in both Greek and English and has represented Greece at International Storytelling Festivals in Edinburgh, Orkney, Rome, Athens and Kea. Her academic qualifications include BA Sociology and PostGradDip Tourism.
Stella is the founding Director of Friends of Amari, an international association contributing to the revival of the Valley and Village of Amari in Crete, through the art of storytelling: International Storytelling Centre; Courses; Festivals and by supporting local cultural initiatives.

Roi Gal-Or, is a founder of the International school of storytelling in England. He teaches the use of storytelling in service of the environment, education, healing, peace and reconciliation. Roi works with the power of stories and the imagination to inspire connection and social transformation, foster vision, possibility and personal development. When he is not at home with his wife and 3 kids you will probably find him somewhere around the world performing or magically weaving together stories community building skills, social development games and biographical work. https://www.roigalor.com/

Pelin Turgut is a Turkish/British storyteller and facilitator. She was a longtime correspondent for TIME magazine, founder of a popular independent film festival and Sundance Institute-affiliated screenwriters lab. She works with disruptor businesses and creative individuals on how to tell their story to build community, raise financing and become visible. She is a mentor on the RESPOND and PLACE startup programs, faculty at London-based Escape the City and teaches at storytelling centers around Europe. In her spare time, she volunteers for permaculture projects. http://pelinturgut.com/

DANIEL MORDEN has been a professional storyteller since 1989. His repertoire ranges from awful jokes to sacred myths. He has toured all over the world, from First Nation communities in Canada to Sydney Writers Festival. He has collaborated with Hugh on workshops, performances and books for over 20 years. For the past ten years, he has collaborated with musicians as THE DEVIL'S VIOLIN. To date they have created five shows, which have toured throughout the UK and to festivals all over Europe. His anthologies of Welsh stories, DARK TALES FROM THE WOODS and TREE OF LEAF AND FLAME both won the Tir Na Nog Award. In May 2017 he was awarded the Hay Festival Medal. https://danielmorden.org/

Dr. Martin Shaw is a mythologist, author and storyteller. His first book, A Branch From The Lightning Tree was awarded the Nautilus prize for non-fiction, and was followed by Snowy Tower and Scatterlings to complete a trilogy of wo
rks on mythology, landscape and the nature of soul.
An international teacher, he has designed and lead both the Oral Tradition and
Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, and, as a fellow of Schumacher
College in Devon, co-created their MA in Myth and Ecology (with Dr. Carla
Stang). His school of independent scholars in mythopoetic’s and wilderness
studies is just entering its fourteenth year.
Principle teacher at Robert Bly’s Great Mother Conference, recent
collaborations have included working with Mark Rylance, Coleman Barks and David
Abram.
He is a scholar from The British School in Rome, and his translations of Gaelic
and Welsh folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in The Mississippi
Review, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Orion, and Poetry Magazine.
2018 will see the release of his new book, Courting the Dawn: Poems of Lorca
(with Stephan Harding), with several more in completion: all involving a
revisioning of the word romanticism in the early twenty first century.
www.drmartinshaw.com and www.schoolofmyth.com
Glenys Newton is from the UK and has been telling stories for a few years now. She tell stories in pubs, theatres, churches, festivals, schools, libraries, village halls, literary festivals and basically where anyone is prepared to listen. She tells stories with people with learning disabilities, visual impairments and those experiencing mental health difficulties, often telling and gathering personal stories. Glenys won the prestigious The Mothstorytelling competition in 2014 to tell the first Moth story ever to be told outside of America. She loves to tell biographical stories, her own and those of others and in 2016 toured in the UK, Holland and Belgium with a performance of refugee stories having volunteered in refugee camps across Europe. Glenys works closely with the Essex Book Festival in creating events to tell the stories of the people of Essex. She has had two books published, non fiction, and is currently the Bard of Cambridge! Her real passion though is her connection with animals which has been from a very early age and often feature in her biographical stories.

Minka Straube, Trauma Therapist and Pedagogue /Traumatherapeutin und Pädagogin. Minka Straube has
been a Waldorf Teacher for more then 20 years. She
actually works as a Traumapedagogue and and Psychotherapist also as teacher and trainer for Traumapedagogy worldwide. With the emergency pedagogy initiative of Friends of Waldorf education she‘s been active in many crisis
countries such as
Gaza/Palestine, Kirgistan, Iraq, Japan, Libanon,
Phillipines, Bosnia and Greece (Lesbos). She has
worked during the last 3 years intensively in Kurdistan/Iraq, where she was the
pedagogcial head of a profound initiative with trainings in orphanages, at the
Dohuk university and in 3 big refugee camps. Trauma pedagogy is her main issue in these days. She is co founder of IINTP,
Free International Institute for emergency and trauma pedagogy http://iintp.info in Karlsruhe.

Martin Straube, Doctor of medicine, specialist for Trauma and Healing plants / Arzt, Spezialist für Trauma Fragen und Heilpflanzen sowie.Medical anthroposophic doctor(GAÄD)
Lecturer and consultant for medicinal, pedagogical and art topics.
Offers training for pharmacists, doctors, homeopathic practitioners, midwives. Employed by companies, schools, kindergartens and training institutions.
Founder and consultant of the recently founded International Institute for Emergency and Trauma GmbH (http://iintp.info)
Previous experience: School doctor for Waldorf schools, Ruhr region; lecturer at the Ita Wegman vocational college, Wuppertal; lecturer at the Institute for Homeopathy, Witten.
Currently he has a practice in Hamburg and have given around 200 lectures on different themes in medical, pedagogical and art topics.
In recent years his wife and he (she more frequently) have travelled to conflict and crisis areas around the world to work with traumatised children. https://www.praxis-straube.net

Micaela Sauber, storyteller, Social Therapist and Curative Educator / Erzählkünstlerin, Heilerzieherin und Sozialtherapeutin.Born 1945 in the last days of WWII, Micaela became a professional storyteller in the 1990s, after theological studies, curative education and journalism. She initiated the network Tellers without Borders, keeps threads together and is also the head of the board of the German legal association Erzähler ohne Grenzen e.V. Some of her key experiences as a storyteller and teacher for storytelling were in Bosnia during and after war, Dubrovnik/Croatia after siege, Palestine/Gaza strip and Westbank, North Iraq, Libanon. During the last three years with doctors of medicine and therapists in Germany she studied about trauma and healing and integrates this into her humanitarian work as a storyteller. Micaela is travelling with emergency pedagogies to countries in crisis, facilitating workshops about storytelling. Friends of Waldorf education who have developed effective missions in emergency and trauma pedagogy worldwide since 2006, are her main cooperation partners. After her first stay in Amari in Spring 1918 Micaela became a member of Friends of Amari.

Richard Heys, a practicing professional artist from
the UK, is an experienced and inspirational art tutor. He grew up in West Yorkshire at the foot of the Pennines. The bleak beauty of the rocky crags and moors surrounding the farm continues to inform his work. Richard develops a poetic relationship with landscape wherever he travels. He was awarded a B.A (Hons) Fine Art in 1986 and graduated from the Sculpture Training at Emerson College in 2001.
Through his commitment to colour he is engaged in a passionate personal journey to rediscover beauty and uncover the unknown.
Richard tutors and lectures in art and art history on the Visual Arts and Sculpture Training at Emerson College and at Tobias School of Art and Therapy. For a couple of summers Richard worked with Sue Hollingsworth on the Walking the Ridgeway course, helping participants to discover the secrets of the landscape through storytelling and art. Richard is looking forward to exploring the Valley of Amari with you!
Michael Harvey is
a leading contemporary storyteller currently on tour with Hunting the Giant's
Daughter, a faithful contemporary retelling of Culhwch and Olwen (the oldest
extant Arthurian epic) that has won rave reviews from theatres, literature
festivals and major storytelling events. He has a broad repertoire and his work
is rooted in the landscape and mythology of Wales. He has toured and led
workshops extensively throughout the UK, Europe and South America.
In June and September 2011 Michael will be running a EU funded week long
course for teachers in the art of storytelling in the Town of Llangollen in
beautiful North Wales. Details are in the link below...
http://www.ectarc.com/european-training/storytelling_150.html http://www.michaelharvey.org/
http://www.adversecamber.org/
Ross Daly is one of the world's greatest exponents of the music of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many years before what we call "World Music" appeared on the scene, certain individuals, like Ross Daly, had already understood the enormous value and vast variety of the world's various musical traditions and had dedicated their lives to their study. Today, Ross Daly continues travelling and performing in Greece and abroad whilst simultaneously directing the Musical Workshop "Labyrinth" in the village of Houdetsi on Crete.
http://www.labyrinthmusic.gr/ and http://www.rossdaly.gr/
Hugh and Daniel's work on the Greek epics (The Iliad, the Odyssey and
Metamorphoses) has received wide acclaim. Their ‘Iliad' was reviewed in the
Times:
"... I went to the Barbican the other day to listen to two of Britain's
finest storytellers - Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden - recounting the Iliad, the
tale of that great quarrel from which all western literature springs. The seats
were uncomfortable... but the hours flew by. These two men had to do no more
than tap into the ancient power of the spoken word to hold an entire audience in
their thrall. A veil of typescript fell from my eyes. I saw Helen in all her
intoxicating beauty standing amid the bloody chunks of a slaughtered stallion.
I saw Achilles aglitter in gold armour before his black ranks of Myrmidons. I
saw banquets and voyages, armies and oceans, battling heroes and ravening gods
- all conjured out of thin air by a voice. Film is often thought to be a threat
to literature. But the images that billowed and faded in that darkened
auditorium were quite different from those that unspool across a screen. I
could put my hands in front of my face and the pictures would not vanish. They
were inside me. They belonged to me. They were part of the history of the whole
of human life."
Kathleen van der Weerd is a storyteller who loves many kinds of handwork and design. She likes to explore the ways in which stories can manifest in materials other than words: in cloth, clay, paper, shadow, and now in the lines and stones of the labyrinth. She will be telling most of the stories.