The Team

Tales in Tandem is a husband and wife storytelling team. Joan and Mack Swift have rich backgrounds in storytelling, dramatic arts and education. A teacher by profession, Mack is a natural-born storyteller who has been telling tales for as long as he can remember. He knows about 940 stories and will tell them to anyone that will listen. Joan is also a teacher. She began telling stories out of self-defense and studied storytelling at East Tennessee State University, where she earned an MA in Reading and the Story Arts.

The Stories

As tandem tellers, Joan and Mack relate stories from many traditions. They especially enjoy sharing tales from the Appalachians through the "Jack Tales": ancient tales from the Celtic Islands brought here by our early settlers. The Jack Tales are about a boy named Jack who always wins by using his wits and wisdom. He usually gets the princess and some say he is a bigamist. He is sometimes young and sometimes old, but he always seems to stumble upon the right answer.

The Venues

 Joan and Mack have shared their tales for a variety of audiences throughout Virginia and Tennessee.

• LAUGHS Storytelling Festival, Loudoun County, VA
• Virginia Storytelling Alliance (VASA) Gatherings
• Molly Copes Back to the Mountains Festival, Wytheville, VA
• The Lincoln Theater, Marion, VA
• Luray Performing Arts Series, Luray, VA
• Glenn Allen Performing Arts Center, Richmond, VA
• Blue Ridge Community College Folk Arts Festival (6 years), Weyers Cave, VA
• Skyland Resort, Skyline Drive, VA (each week for 6 summers)
• Andiena Ann Tromley Series, Central Rappahannock Library,VA
• First Night-Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Waynesboro, VA
• Johnson County Library, Johnson City, TN
• Dozens of schools and libraries throughout Virginia

The Accolades

Individually and together, Joan and Mack have received a plethora honors. Joan was recognized as the Shenandoah Valley Reading Association’s Reading Teacher of the Year. Mack was honored by the Augusta Historical Society as History Teacher of the Year.

They are both charter members of Virginia Storytelling Alliance, for whom Joan served as its president. They also also helped charter the Shenandoah Valley Storytelling Guild, which promotes storytelling throughout the area.

For their tandem storytelling, the Folk Arts Revival Society awarded them Fiddlin’ Frog Award.

Most recently, as a part of the Jamestown 400th Anniversary Celebration, the Augusta County Historical Society commissioned Mack to co-author a musical with Richard Adams celebrating Augusta County’s past. The co-authors of the play, The Spirit of Augusta, won the 2008 National Association of Counties Achievement Award.