ABOUT | storyteller

My name is Sofia Maul and I am a bilingual (English/Portuguese) storyteller/speech therapist/transaltor living in Madeira. I was born here on this beautiful island and was fortunate to grow up listening to the stories my English, German, Swedish and Californian grandparents had to tell.

A lucky childhood it was with walks in the mountains and swims in the sea, tennis and scuba-diving and birdwatching galore. A stint at the University in Coimbra studying English and German Literature and Languages to become a translator and then a change of heart to be able to help people (after 2 years as a volunteer with the Red Cross): I then moved to Lisbon and became a speech therapist, working mostly with deaf and multilingual children.

In 2004, after listening to an evening of storytelling I began a cycle of training with professional actors and storytellers in the Oeiras Municipal Library which, in 2006, resulted in the creation of a non-profit cultural association: the Contabandistas (www.contabandistas.com) - a group of five storytellers all from different backgrounds who are very active in the promotion of storytellers and of oral storytelling as a contemporary performance art form.

In September 2012 I coordinated the organization of the first edition of TERRA INCÓGNITA - International Storytelling Festival of Lisbon, which presented a dozen national and international guests storytellers and had more than a thousand participants over a week-end full of stories.

In September 2016 I organized with Xarabanda, a musical and cultural association in Madeira, the first international storytelling festival in Madeira: EVA, Era uma Vez no Atlântico as part of a network of storytelling festivals on the Atlantic coastline which includes Atlantica in Galicia, Terra Incógnita in Lisbon, Conto Contigo na Praia in the Azores and Rencontres de l'Imaginaire in Brittany.

Since March 2015 I have coordinated a weekly get together (Tertúlia) for people to sing together, thus strengthening community ties through the collective voice of intangible human heritage, memory and sharing human warmth and affection.

I have shared stories in libraries, schools, book fairs, festivals, restaurants, theaters, terraces, caves and beaches, boats and trains, across the country and even abroad at international storytelling festivals in Ireland, England, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Poland.

My stories come from near and far but the ones I treasure most are those that come from this little island in the middle of the Atlantic, where I have returned after twenty years in Lisbon. It is great to be back home and hug family and friends, tell and collect stories, walk around in awe of the natural wonders of this place and plant dragon trees.

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