SUSAN DANOFF

Background and Experience 

Susan Danoff has loved stories all her life and began exploring the art of storytelling in 1979. She is author of the book The Golden Thread:  Storytelling in Teaching and Learning and has produced three audio recordings. Women of Vision, now available on CD, won the 2008 Parents' Choice Gold Award and the 2008 NAPPA Gold Award (National Parenting Publication Awards).

After working as an independent teaching artist in New Jersey schools from 1982 - 1996, including five years with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Artists-in-Education Program, in 1996 Susan founded the nonprofit corporation Storytelling Arts, Inc., where she served as Executive Director until 2007.  Under her leadership, Storytelling Arts forged partnerships with more than fifty schools and institutions, served approximately 18,000 children in long-term programs to support learning and literacy, and provided extensive teacher training in storytelling. 

Since 1986, Susan has taught week-long intensive workshops in storytelling at Princeton University. Her summer programs have been designed to help teachers learn the art of storytelling and its relevance to community building, literacy, and learning.   

Susan has also taught storytelling to undergraduates at Princeton, for docents at the Princeton University Art Museum, for the Friends Council on Education, in the School of Education at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, and at numerous teacher in-services. From 1985-1992 she taught “The Craft of Writing” at Princeton University.  

Susan earned a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Princeton University, an M.A. in English from Rutgers University, and an English Teaching Credential from the University of California, Berkeley. She has an extensive repertoire of international folktales and literary stories and has performed at numerous schools, libraries, museums, and festivals.  (See partial list below.) 

Here is a small sampling of the places where Susan has given keynote speeches, told stories, and given workshops: 

Keynote speeches:

• Federal Government’s General Services Administration annual conference of executive staff

• Center for Early Education Research at Rutgers (CEER)

• National Association of Independent School Librarians

• Luzerne County Women’s Conference, PA

• Rutgers Institute for Research on Women

• Relearning by Design Conference, The College of New Jersey

• Cotsen Library Conference on Literary Stories, Princeton University

• Michigan Council for Social Studies

• Michigan State University School of Education Conference on Literacy

• Garden State Principal’s Center

• Saddle Brook School District, In-service

Performances:

• Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival

• Detroit Institute of Arts

• “Radio Times” WHYY Radio, Philadelphia

• “Three Stories Tall,” NBC TV, Washington, DC

• St. Andrews School, DE

• Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University

• University of Michigan Museum of Art

• 92^nd Street Y, NYC

• George School, PA

• Jones County Schools, NC

• American School, London

• Sackler Gallery of Art, Smithsonian

• International Children’s Festival, Wolf Trap

• Manhattan Children’s Museum

• Scandinavia House, NYC

• many public schools throughout New Jersey

Workshops:

• Friends Council on Education, Philadelphia

• Princeton University Art Museum

• Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University

• Cabrini College, PA

• The College of New Jersey

• Trenton Head  Start

• East Orange Child Development Corporation (Head Start)

• Fort Work Literacy Conference, TX

• Lincoln Center Summer Institute, NYC

• West Chester University, PA

• Connecticut Storytelling Center, Annual Festival

• Lincoln Center Summer Institute, NYC

• MAST, Mid-Atlantic Storytellers Conference, PA

Long-term residencies in schools (in NJ unless otherwise noted):

• Martin Luther King Middle School, Trenton

• P.J. Hill Elementary School, Trenton

• Sampson G. Smith Middle School, Franklin Township

• Cook Elementary School, Plainfield

• Moorestown Friends School

• Stratford Friends School, PA

• Princeton Friends School

• Cedar Road School, Coltsneck

• Rutgers Preparatory School

• Princeton Day  School

• St, Marks Head Start Program, Brooklyn

• Little Brook School, Princeton

• Trenton Head Start

COLLEGES

• Michigan State University

• Mercer County Community College

• Passaic County Community College

• Union County College

• Douglass College

• Hunter College

• Carnegie Mellon University

• Dickinson College

• Albright College

• Princeton University

• Muhlenberg College Poetry Festival

• Wilkes University

• Cabrini College

• Centenary College

Susan Danoff, 121 Main Street, New Ipswich, NH  03071   |   603-291-0028   |   info@susandanoff.com