BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University's Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and High Country Humanities – in collaboration with the Watauga County Public Library – is pleased to present “International Story Time,” a series of storytelling sessions by App State faculty members and students during the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters.
Pre-K children, elementary school students, and parents are all invited to these free public events, where faculty and students from the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures will read children’s stories from different cultures. Event leaders will also teach participants a few fun vocabulary words in another language.
Each of the following sessions will take place from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Watauga County Public Library Community Room, located at 140 Queen Street in Boone, except for the December session, which will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Watauga County Public Library Children's Story Corner.
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Saturday, December 6, 2025
Wake Up, Santa Claus by Marcus Pfister with Dr. Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand and Jack Hellenbrand
Dr. Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand, professor of German and global studies, will read Lieber Nikolaus wach auf! / Wake Up, Santa Claus by Marcus Pfister. Dr. Sterling-Hellenbrand specializes in German language and culture, medieval German literature, fairy tales, Arthurian legends, and "Mittelalterrezeption"/medievalism. She has authored the books Medieval Literature on Display: Heritage and Culture in Modern Germany and Topographies of Gender in Middle High German Arthurian Romance. Sterling-Hellenbrand is also a Fulbright Scholar.
Jack Hellenbrand, ESL teacher at Watauga County Public Schools, will join Dr. Sterling-Hellenbrand in reading Lieber Nikolaus wach auf! /Wake Up, Santa Claus by Marcus Pfister.
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Thursday, January 15, 2026
Stories from the Chinese Tradition with Dr. Wendy Xie
Dr. Wendy Xie, professor of Chinese, will read stories from the Chinese tradition. Dr. Xie specializes in Chinese language at all levels, twentieth-century Chinese poetry, fiction, and drama, Chinese popular culture, gender performance in Chinese theater and film, and melodramatic imagination and emotional intimacy. She has co-authored Japanese Idols Go to China: Cultural Adaptation and Nationalism with Dr. Xiaofei Tu and J-Pop Goes to China: AKB48, SNH48 and Nationalism, which is a book manuscript under contract with Lexington Books.
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Thursday, February 19, 2026
Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault with Dr. Darci L. Gardner
Dr. Darci L. Gardner, professor of French and director of High Country Humanities, will read Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault. Dr. Gardner's research focuses on 19th- and 20th-century France, literature and the visual arts, cognitive approaches to literature, and aesthetics. She has published articles on Marcel Proust, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Marie Krysinska in journals such as Philosophy and Literature, French Studies, and Poetics Today, and she is the coeditor of Volume 2 of the complete works of Marie Krysinska.
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Thursday, March 19, 2026
Stories from the Spanish and Mayan Traditions with Dr. Paul Worley
Dr. Paul Worley, chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and professor of Spanish, will read stories from the Spanish and Mayan traditions. Dr. Worley specializes in Spanish, Latin American literatures and cultures, and global Indigenous literatures. He authored Telling and Being Told: Storytelling and Cultural Control in Contemporary Yucatec Maya Literatures and translated selected works by Indigenous authors such as Hubert Matiúwàa (Mè’phàà), Celerina Sánchez, Manuel Tzoc (K’iche’), and Ruperta Bautista (Tsotsil). Worley co-wrote with Rita M. Palacios, Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts’íib as Recorded Knowledge, and co-translated Miguel Rocha Vivas’s Word Mingas. Worley is also a Fulbright Scholar.
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The series is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Donna Bonner, director of App State's English Language Institute, by email at bonnerdm@appstate.edu or visit hchumanities.appstate.edu.
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About the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers courses that enhance students’ understanding of other cultures and languages as well as their own, making them prepared for lifelong learning in a multicultural world. Learn more at dllc.appstate.edu.
About High Country Humanities
High Country Humanities at Appalachian State University aims to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the humanities across the High Country region of North Carolina. The program supports faculty in their scholarly activities, promotes their collaborations with community partners and organizes events that help their expertise reach the wider public. High Country Humanities is an initiative of App State’s College of Arts and Sciences, with support from the Division of Academic Affairs. Learn more at hchumanities.appstate.edu.
About the Appalachian Regional Library
Appalachian Regional Library is a network of libraries across northwestern North Carolina, encompassing Ashe, Watauga, and Wilkes counties. The Appalachian Regional Library nurtures individual and community growth through free and equal access to resources for reading, thinking, learning, and living. Learn more at arlibrary.org.
Dr. Darci Gardner (top left), Dr. Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (top right), Dr. Paul Worley (bottom left), and Dr. Wendy Xie (bottom right)
Dr. Darci Gardner (top left), Dr. Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (top right), Dr. Paul Worley (bottom left), and Dr. Wendy Xie (bottom right)