Author

Susan Perrow

My name is Susan Perrow. I am an Australian whose ‘work’ passion is stories and storytelling. I am a writer, storyteller, teacher trainer and parent educator. For the last 30 years I have been documenting stories from other cultures, writing stories and telling stories to groups of children and adults – all this woven in with a career in teaching and teacher training in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe and the US/Canada.

Academic Work: In 2000 I wrote and tutored a 150-hour unit on Storytelling for Southern Cross University - the first of its kind at an Australian University. In 2001 I completed my Masters Research on Storytelling in a cross-cultural situation (post-apartheid South Africa). I have presented papers on my storytelling work at several World Conferences, including the Fifth International Action Research Conference in Ballarat, Australia in 2000; the first International Conference on ‘Imagination in Education’ in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003; the International Kolisko Conference in Cape Town, South Africa in 2006, and a national Medical Conference - 'This Examined Life' - at Iowa University, U.S. in 2013 .

Current Work:  Today my time is spent writing, consulting with teachers, parents and therapists, and running workshops on therapeutic story-writing and  storytelling. I travel internationally -  from China to Africa, Europe to America and across my own sun-drenched land of Australia. When I am home I enjoy walking, kayaking and swimming, and lots of family time.

My first book, Healing Stories for Challenging Behaviour, has been translated into several languages, including Mandarin (simplified Chinese), Korean, Traditional Chinese, Croatian and Portuguese. A Japanese translation has been my latest project - entitled 'Stories to Grow the Hearts of Children' it includes therapeutic stories of hope and resilience for the families that survived the 2011 tsunami.

I am also working on an e-book series - 'A Spoonful of Stories' - each book with a different theme. I have completed three so far (see e-book page).