Writing & Talks
Hospitals & Cemeteries // Please See Me // September 2019
“I stand outside the tall building with its many additions and renovations. I don’t want to go inside. But I can’t turn around now. I won’t turn around now. This is a thing I need to do, like I need to breathe, I need to eat.”
Baby Brother // Adelaide Literary Magazine
“I had a brother. But I never had a brother.”
Why Stories Are Just So Good For Us | Dr. Kat Kiefer-Newman | TEDxMSJC
This is a brief talk on some of the science and social reactions that storytelling can offer to help people become more resilient. Jeremy Adam Smith is the main source referenced for the science. A personal story from Katherine Kiefer-Newman's childhood about the goddess, Pele, helping a farm couple on the island of Oahu is shared within that childhood story. This story is intended to illustrate how a story can help a person dealing with loneliness and feeling like an outsider, as well as provide a connection with the audience to enable them to mine their own childhood memories for similar kinds of healing stories. The main point of this talk is that stories can be told and shared to help with empathy, healing, and resilience. Dr. Katherine Kiefer-Newman is a storyteller, author, and professor. She lives with her husband, two silly dogs, a bossy cat, and at least one of her two adult daughters at any given time in the dusty Quail Valley area of Southern California. You can find more from her on her podcast, Lost in the Rabbit Hole, where she shares and goes into the darker background of folktales and fairytales. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community college: MSJC
Academic Writing: Google Scholar
A list of Kat Kiefer-Newman’s academic publications.