Judith Liberman

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Judith Malika Liberman (born 1978) is a French storyteller, writer and teacher who lives in Turkey. She learned storytelling at 14 in a French commune, where people shared tales by the fireplace, and later helped revive Anatolian fairy tales in Turkey.

She holds a master’s degree in linguistics from Sorbonne University in Paris, studied acting at Pomona College in California, and trained in storytelling at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Liberman’s career in Turkey began when she served as the cultural attaché of France to Turkey in Ankara. She stayed in Turkey after the assignment, teaching academic writing at Middle East Technical University in Ankara for seven years and English at Koç University in Istanbul. She is also a certified yoga teacher and weaves storytelling into her practice.

She worked with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum in Ankara and with folklorists at Gazi University, taking part in projects, conferences and festivals. She trains storytellers to use oral storytelling to help pediatric patients.

Liberman has performed and taught fairy-tale narration in many countries, including Turkey. She has lived in Turkey since 2004 and reintroduced the tradition of fairy-tale storytelling there by teaching Anatolian tales. Since 2014, she has hosted a weekly radio program, Masal Bu Ya (“This is the Tale”), on NTV Radio. She also presents monthly night storytelling performances at the Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center in Şişli, Istanbul, with a near-perfect Turkish accent.

In March 2018, she presented Nasreddin Hodja tales at the Toronto International Storytelling Festival. She wrote Masal Terapisi (“Storytelling Therapy”) in 2015, followed by Masallarla Yola Çık (“The Journey Starts with a Tale”) in 2017 and Önce Hayal (“Imagination First”) in 2019. She was a consultant for the 2015 Turkish film Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş (“Once Upon A Time”).