Margaret Read MacDonald is a highly respected, award-winning author of more than 55 books. She is a very popular storyteller and performer who shares her lively retellings of folktales for schools and audiences around the globe. Drawing on her background in folklore (Ph.D. Indiana University Folklore Institute) and her extensive travels throughout the world, MacDonald searches out unusual tales from the world's folk literature and oral traditions. She has a gift for retelling these stories so they appeal to children and adults alike.

MacDonald teaches storytelling courses for the University of Washington School of Information Science and for Lesley University. As a Children's Librarian for the King County Library System, MacDonald kept finding gaps in her library collection. So she wrote books to fill these needs. On her travels, she collected a number of timeless folktales that she adapted into award-winning picture books, resource books and folktale collections from many cultures. She recently received her third Anne Izard Storytelling Award for her resource book: Teaching with Story and the National Storytelling Network recognized her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Her award-winning LittleFolk picture book, Go to Sleep Gecko was selected by the Prime Minister of Singapore to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of kidsREAD, a program sponsored by the National Library Board to encourage children to read more and to promote good reading habits.

Margaret retired recently from working as a children's librarian in order to spend more time on the road sharing her love for stories and giving workshops. Recent trips have found her telling stories in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain, and Singapore and of course in Hong Kong where Nathaniel and Jen Whitman, her collaborators for Teaching with Story, live and teach with their daughter.