Bio: Sharon Kirk Clifton, Writer and
Raconteur
As a professional
storyteller of more than 32 years, Sharon Kirk Clifton has traveled throughout America’s
heartland, presenting her one-woman historical performances, faith-centered
presentations, and workshops for schools (kindergarten through college),
libraries, museums, festivals, churches, and business meetings. In her beloved
Appalachian character “Jack’s Mama,” she occasionally busks on assorted street
corners and liars’ benches.
As a classroom teacher,
she taught middle and high school English, storytelling, and reading. She also
facilitated a G/T program for three schools. Most recently, she taught English
at Columbus Christian School. While writing feature articles for two
newspapers, she received two Hoosier State Press Association Blue Ribbon
awards. She also was awarded first place in the Winners’ Circle of the National
Association of State Poetry Societies.
Clifton is recipient of
a Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship to study Appalachian oral tradition and
develop her character of Jack’s Mama as a vehicle for presenting those ancient
tales; Storytelling Arts of Indiana’s Frank Basile Emerging Stories Fellowship
for Abigail Gray: Living under the
Drinking Gourd, the stories of the Underground Railroad in southern Indiana
and beyond; two separate joint commissions from Storytelling Arts of Indiana
and the Indiana Historical Society to research, develop, and present first At Home and in Harm’s Way: The Role of
Indiana Women in the Civil War, and then Over There and Back Again: WW 1 through the Eyes of Two Hoosiers; a
commission from Indiana State Museum for Making
Ends Meet: Indiana Homemakers during the Great Depression; and a commission
from Jackson County Public Library to research, develop, and present Love and War in Little Valley: The Story of
the First White Woman to Settle Jackson County. Her two newest storytelling
projects will premiere in 2018.
Clifton has written two
middle-grade novels, also: Up a Rutted
Road, set in southeastern Kentucky in 1950; and The Second Cellar, set in Jefferson County, Indiana in present day
and 1859 (it involves time travel). Clifton received a joint grant from the
Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts to begin work
on the latter novel. She also is a regular contributor to books published by
Good Catch Publishing, where she has been named Writer of the Month. One of
their books that contains a story she wrote was recently named “2015 Book of
the Year.” Current projects include more creative-non-fiction testimony stories
for Good Catch Publishing, a third middle-grade novel (again involving time
travel), and a Christian historical romance set in Brown County, Indiana. Ideas
for several other projects continue to “dance around the back 40” of her
imagination.
NOTE TO CLIENTS: You are free to shorten
the above bio as long as you allow me the courtesy of review the shortened
version BEFORE PUBLICATION. I reserve the right to edit the shortened version.
Thank you.
