Suzi "Mama" Whaples has been performing professionally
as a storyteller for the past 15 years. Before storytelling, mama worked in child evangelism and as a Youth Media Specialist
in a local library. While working at the library she envisioned educating the children of West Virginia about their
rich Appalachian heritage by using the art of storytelling. She formed a group of three tellers and called them The Mountain Women.
In 1998, they won the National Storytelling
Contest in Hillsboro, Ohio. They, also, took away the top honor for Echoes in the Coalfields in 2001.
The Mountain Women, later reduced to two tellers, have traveled throughout the United States spinning yarns and telling tales.
Suzi works both alone and as part of The Mountain Women. She has taken her solo act to CA, IA, FL, IL, IN, OH and, of course, throughout her beloved West Virginia.
In 2007 Mama was honored by her peers and given the Bob Mcwhorter Award for outstanding work in storytelling. Mama loves to retell family stories passed down through generations of coalminers
and mountain people. She delights in the sounds of laughter from children eight to eighty.
