The Cracked Pot's Gift: Stories to Challenge and Comfort is an enchanting collection of age-old tales from around the world, each illuminated with the author's own captivating stories. A rich and wide-ranging banquet of a book meant for browsing, inspiring, comforting, challenging—a book that invites sharing; stories that invite telling and re-telling.
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Each world tale is followed by stories that delve into what it means to be human, to be fallible, and to encounter new and unexpected situations with curiosity and the courage born of an open heart. Each story is uniquely paired with an intriguing question to contemplate, a roadmap that encourages readers to discover and recover their own stories. Unique and to be treasured, The Cracked Pot's Gift offers up tales that have the power to heal, to touch hearts and minds, to gift us with our most ancient and delicious ways of understanding what it means to be who we are and who we want to be.

What readers had to say

Nancy King's stories are lyrical; her sentences are musical and straightforward. Her ability with detail places me in the moment, so I share her experience—these stories invite readers to participate. Nancy King's writing moves me to write more myself.  

~ Nancy Shiffrin, poet.
Nancy King is our tour guide through the world of stories, taking us on a journey through life's challenges and pleasures. By providing evocative questions, she opens the storytelling path for us to tell our stories. I know I will.

~ Claudia Reder, PhD, poet
Nancy King's gentle but powerful prose will transport you to a place of enlightened understanding of the human condition, where pain meets healing. A combination of well-earned contemporary experience coupled with age-old tales across the continents. Reading The Cracked Pot's Gift is a transcendent experience! 

~ Marlene Simon, M.A., M.F.A.
Nancy King is an esteemed novelist and authority on world stories. Here, she gives us something special—a collection of world tales, each illuminated with her own captivating stories. This book is unique and to be treasured. 

~ Gill Hague, Professor Emerita, poet
The stories in The Cracked Pot's Gift are a fresco of the world that one must read with the eyes of the mind. Imagine yourself like a bird over the world map, enjoying the beauty of landscapes and ignoring borders. 

~ Issa Nyaphaga Artist, activist, and radio producer
In the marvelous book The Cracked Pot's Gift, Nancy King reminds us of the magic of storytelling: one story leads to another. Each story prompts us, as readers, to reflect on and share our own stories in a process of discovery, healing, and connection. I finished the book with a renewed commitment to share and create stories with students of all ages!

~ Jacy Ippolito, Ed.D., Professor, McKeown School of Education, Salem State University, Salem, MA
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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.

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