Showing results by narrator "W. Nikola-Lisa" in All Categories

The times demand a response. Some people prefer prayer and contemplation. Others prefer action. Both are acts of civil disobedience in their own right, just at opposite ends of the spectrum. Over the years, I’ve come to believe that both are indispensable, that they are two sides of the same coin, distinct but inseparable.

Author and storyteller W. Nikola-Lisa presents three original folk stories in this handsome volume. While the first two stories offer traditional elements of a folk story - magic, daring, wonder, and amazement - the last story is a meditation on the development of writing and the art of bookmaking.

Set in 1918, Dear Frank offers the listener a glimpse of life in the Boston area during the waning days of World War I. Young Andrew, writing to his older brother Frank, a serviceman fighting overseas, is intent on keeping his brother abreast of all that is going on around him, especially the Boston Red Sox, led by the young, hard-hitting, left-handed pitcher Babe Ruth.

W. Nikola-Lisa explores new terrain - his childhood experiences growing up in south Texas during the early 1960s. Unlike his previous books, this is not a book for young children as the author explores the darker elements growing up in a harsh environment. Although the work feels like a memoir, it sounds like a novel with the author's spare, unrelenting narrative a perfect accompaniment to the time, place, and underlying familial issues.

Told in brief, repetitive episodes, Ichiro and the Great Mountain follows a young, free-spirited boy through the stages of life as he searches for his true self, making this original literary folktale by award-winning author and storyteller W. Nikola-Lisa a story of becoming or, in the Buddhist tradition, a story of self-realization and enlightenment.

In The Things He Could Have Been, W. Nikola-Lisa pulls back the curtain on Babe Ruth’s off-the-field shenanigans, offering the listener a humorous, yet highly informative, portrayal of the Yankee slugger. Ruth was multi-talented and, it's not really hard to imagine, could have been many things - a professional golfer, a heavyweight boxer, a movie star, a football player, just to name a few of his interests.