"Even after dark, if you are quiet and attentive, you can hear a Killdeer far off. Sandbars, mud flats and grazed fields are where you find them. They are commonplace. So much so, that you might miss them if not for the unique sound they make as they fly overhead, or dart back and forth on the ground, as if wondering which way to go next. So it is with Michael Cotter's stories. They are like a comfortable pair of slippers. Not flashy at all, but each time you put them on and walk in them, you are so glad you did. They appear so ordinary, but the way they wrap around your soul surprises you. And like slippers you thought you'd never buy, Michael's stories surprise you. Even though they are not flashy, energetic or dramatic in ways we have come to expect in this digital age, they are grounded in universal truths, with timeless characters. They provide us with a sense of memory, wisdom and peace that celebrates the human spirit, and revels in the common man, woman, boy and girl that is in us all. When Michael tells his stories, it's as if time stands still. We are reminded of who we really are....down deep....after the television is turned off, the radio is silenced, and we have put our egos on the shelf to rest a spell."

--Rex Ellis, Director of Museum programs, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
About the Author: Honored by his peers as a Circle of Excellence Storyteller
of the National Storytelling Network, Michael Cotter was born near Austin, Minnesota, in
1931 on the farm that had been in his family since 1876. He
was the youngest of eight children and was raised in a strict
Irish-Catholic household. However, the barn and fields were
a different world, populated by hired men who were hoboes,
drifting in during the Great Depression. His stories reflect
those two conflicting life styles, blended together with his own
version of Irish humor.
Michael has farmed with horses and combines with
global positioning; and his stories describe the personalities of
the people and animals that were a part of that evolution.
He was fifty years old when he first stepped on the
stage, and his unusual approach to storytelling has given him
the opportunity to perform throughout the U.S.; including
the Smithsonian Folk Festival, National Storytelling Festival,
schools, fairs, retreats, programs, television, hosting radio
shows in Des Moines, Iowa, and Austin, and a number of
other venues. He was the Artistic Director of the Minnesota
Storytelling Festival for twenty-two years, starred in a healing
stories film used by the Mayo Clinic, and is a national award
winning storyteller.
Michael now resides in Albert Lea, Minnesota, with
his wife Beverly, a writer and artist, and still spends his days
working with his son on the farm.