Nancy King
  • Home
  • About
  • Stories
    • Breaking the Silence
    • All Books
    • Monthly Stories
    • World Tales
  • Workshops
  • Weavings
  • Press
  • Contact

JULY 2023 - Ping Pong

7/22/2023

2 Comments

 
Picture
When I was 15, my parents bought a house and my father bought a ping pong table. I didn’t know how to play, and my sister wasn’t interested, so the table went unused except for an occasional game with my father. I left to go to a music camp a few weeks later. Although I played the piano unenthusiastically and wasn’t interested in immersing myself in music, it meant I’d be away from my family for a month and that was worth a lot.

On the first full day of camp we had to audition for lessons, orchestra, and ensembles. I wasn’t skilled enough to play badly intentionally so in addition to my private lesson, I was signed up for four-hand piano ensemble. I argued that I wasn’t good enough to play with another person on the same piano, but the instructor, mistaking honesty for humility, assured me I would learn.

​Desperate for something to do besides play the piano, I wandered into a building I hadn’t seen before, into a large room where a man was sitting next to a ping pong table, looking as lonely as I felt. He brightened up when he saw me. “Want to play?”


Read More
2 Comments

JULY 2023 - Casting the Snow Queen

7/15/2023

3 Comments

 
Picture
In 1978, as part of my work in the University of Delaware’s theatre department, I created a play for children based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story, The Snow Queen. The main human characters are Gerda, Gerda’s Grandfather, Kai, and the Snow Queen.

The story is well-known and a lot of students turned out for the auditions. I asked each person what mattered most to them in the story and why they wanted to play a particular part. Some shrugged, not prepared to answer with any depth. A few loved the story and wanted to be in the production. I chose the most talented students who had clearly thought about their participation.

Read More
3 Comments

JULY 2023 - Naivete

7/8/2023

1 Comment

 
Picture
In April 1959 I answered a newspaper ad written by an internationally renowned folk-dance teacher. He was looking for people to join him in teaching folk dancing in a variety of European countries for 11 weeks during the summer. I’d been longing to go to Europe. This seemed a great way to go since I’d been folk dancing for years. What made it possible to apply was that his timetable coincided with my public-school teaching schedule. I responded immediately.

Read More
1 Comment

    Monthly Stories

    Stories inspired by world tales to challenge and comfort.


      Subscribe to Nancy's Newsletter

    Submit

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020

    Categories

    All
    Press
    World Tale

    RSS Feed

Copyright © Nancy King 2020  |  Site Design by Angulo Marketing & Design

Contact Nancy
Home
About
Breaking the Silence
​
All Books
Monthly Stories
​
World Tales
​
Workshops
Weavings
Nancy King is a widely published author and a professor emerita at the University of Delaware, where she has taught theater, drama, playwriting, creative writing, and multidisciplinary studies with an emphasis on world literature. She has published seven previous works of nonfiction and five novels. Her new memoir, Breaking the Silence, explores the power of stories in healing from trauma and abuse. Her career has emphasized the use of her own experience in being silenced to encourage students to find their voices and to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with authenticity, as a way to add meaning to their lives.

    Sign Up for Updates from Nancy

Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Home
  • About
  • Stories
    • Breaking the Silence
    • All Books
    • Monthly Stories
    • World Tales
  • Workshops
  • Weavings
  • Press
  • Contact