28 Feb Talking Gourds: Missouri Storyteller Reads at Bardic Trails, 3/3!
Talking Gourds “Stories & Poems” Bardic Trails series happens the first Tuesday of each month. Featured guests give a 15-20 minute presentation each, followed by a short Q & A period after the presentation. Then there’s a passing of the gourd, when community members are encouraged to share stories or poems.
Storyteller, writer, mixed-media painter and professional reinvention enthusiast Kate Torode of Missouri will be the featured storyteller for the Telluride Institute’s first Tuesday Talking Gourds’ Bardic Trails virtual Stories & Poems series. Takes place Tuesday, 3/3, 7 pm MST.
Bardic Trails is a project of the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program, in collaboration with Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library. “Stories & Poems” is free and open to all ages, thanks to the generosity of the library, a Town of Telluride CCAASE grant, private donors and Talking Gourds’ Fischer & Cantor poetry contests.
For more information, text 970-729-0220 or email Goodtimes at art@tellurideinstitute.org. To visit the Talking Gourds website go to: www.tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds
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Kate Torode, courtesy Talking Gourds.
Kate tells us she is living her second act on the banks of the Mississippi in St. Louis. Her writing blends wit, warmth, and an affinity for existential snack food. After years in the corporate world supporting engineers, executives, and large teams, she did what many people only fantasize about during particularly bleak meetings: she listened to the quiet, persistent voice insisting there had to be more than calendars, budgets, and “just circling back.”
That voice eventually turned into humor, then stories, then a fully realized alter ego named Mallory Reynolds, also known as Chicken Nugget Girl. Through sharp wit, self-deprecation, and emotional honesty, Kate writes about burnout, grief, mental health, midlife unraveling, and the strange beauty of starting over when you’re fairly sure you should have everything figured out by now. Her work blends laugh-out-loud moments with genuine vulnerability, inviting readers to see themselves in the mess, the humor, and the resilience.
In addition to writing, Kate is a mixed-media abstract painter whose visual art explores chaos, healing, and the quiet courage required to begin again. Her creative universe – often referred to as the “Malloryverse”– includes novels, short stories, experimental fiction, and emerging multimedia projects that blur the line between comedy and catharsis. She was a participant in the 2025 Fischer Poetry Contest.
When not building worlds or reworking punchlines, Kate is painting, trapezing, being a self-proclaimed master puppeteer, laughing with her husband and five cats and navigating creative life with a mug of something warm and a strong local art community.
For those that like prompts, we are suggesting “Mysterious Fork in the Road,” although poems on any subject are welcome. Virtual attendees are encouraged to bring a story or poem to share each month after the featured reader, their own work or someone else’s.
Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library and Talking Gourds have started a live Stories & Poems series at the library’s Magazine Room on the third Tuesday of every month, although we are changing the time from 5:30 pm to 5:15 pm so we can wrap up for the library’s closing time at 7 pm. We began in December with Montrose metaphysical poet Tracy Lightsey, in January we had Montrose storyteller Tanya Ishikawa, and Feb. 3rd we had writer Karen Bellerose and musician Bob Beer – both of Lawson Hill. On Mar. 3rd we will have Mary Hearding of Rico and a surprise guest.
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