For many years I was a professional storyteller who wanted to write. It wasn’t until my 103 year-old grandmother came to to live and die with my family that I had something I wanted to write about. The journal I kept during her six months with us became the starting point for Bringing Bubbe Home, a Memoir of Letting go Through Love and Death.

During the many years it took for the book to be completed, I decided to get an MFA in writing (from Vermont College of Fine Arts) to hone my writing skills enough to serve the story. In addition to Bringing Bubbe Home, a Memoir of Letting go Through Love and Death, my stories have been published in anthologies including the Cup of Comfort series, Chosen Tales, Stories told by Jewish Storytellers, and Mitzvah Stories. Two of my memoir pieces and an author interview are featured on the flash-fiction website, “Curly Red Stories,” and my story, “Diving for Love” was a finalist in the Redbook Magazine “Your Love Story” contest.

I still travel nationwide to perform and lead storytelling and writing workshops. I’ve appeared at the National Storytelling Festival and have been a keynote speaker at dozens of women’s conferences, where my stories of strong female protagonists are featured. My CD, “Return Again: Stories of Healing and Renewal,” features a unique combination of personal narrative blended with Jewish folktales.

My husband, Rabbi David Zaslow is the leader of Havurah Shir Hadash in Ashland. Together we lead inspirational services and programs at Jewish communities throughout the country. We also lead a Maggid training program, guiding students to be certified Jewish storytellers and Torah teachers. When I’m not delivering pots of lemon-ginger chicken soup to congregants, or hunting down waxwings and warblers with other birding enthusiasts, I teach storytelling courses at Southern Oregon University and memoir writing classes in the community. David and I have two grown children and the cutest grandbaby in the world.