43°

Becky Bear, Anne C. Fuller, Ishmael Hope, John Neary and others will tell stories during the two-day event, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, and 11 a.m. to noon Saturday morning, Nov. 20, at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

This year's theme is "wild places." Friday's readings will be more complicated stories for adults and kids of all ages. Saturday's stories are for kids of all ages.

"It's just a time to tell stories for the sake of telling stories," she said. "We forget up here that we have so many folks who live and tell stories. Down south, it's unheard of. Up here, you go out on a fishing boat and they're going to tell stories."

This year's event was born when U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Pete Griffin got excited about storytelling and visited the National Storytelling Conference (www.storynet.org). Once he returned, he asked Fuller for some ideas to encourage storytelling in Juneau. She mentioned Tellabration!

According to www.tellabration.org, the Connecticut Storytelling Center began Tellabration! in 1988 in six locations across the state. By 1990, the National Storytelling Network had expanded the program nationwide. By 1997, Tellabration! had spread to every continent except Antarctica.

Tellabration! was held at least three times in Juneau in the early 1990s. It jumped from Resurrection Lutheran Church to McPhetres Hall to the drama room at Juneau-Douglas High School.

"Some people came to it once and never told again; other people told and then went on to other things," Fuller said. "It was a small group of tellers, and Juneau gets busier and busier. We sort of lost momentum and stopped doing it."

Fuller will tell "Rescue At High Tide," a story about Shell Simmons and the rescue of the crew of the cargo ship Patterson, which ran aground on the Outer Coast in early December 1938.

"I think people will enjoy hearing history as it was lived," Fuller said. "It's kind of an exciting story. It reminds you of how challenging it can be in this country if you're not safe and warm indoors."