Last year, CityHeART’s Art from Ashes Magazine got a chance to sit down with the 2023 winner of Long Beach Searches for the Greatest Storyteller: Vickie Wippel. This feature article was published in the Grief & Gratitude issue of the AFA Mag in December. The latest news on Vickie Wippel is her upcoming book launch of her recently published collection of short stories: Still Life.
Below is the Art from Ashes Magazine article featured in Grief & Gratitude edition Dec. 2023.
Long Beach searches for the Greatest Storyteller
“I would not be so bold as to call myself the greatest storyteller,” says Vickie Wippel, winner of the 2023 Long Beach Searches for the Greatest Storyteller competition. “But I did get that experience, and I’m grateful.”
—Vickie Wippel
Vickie has been telling stories her entire life.
Though she is a lover of fiction writing with a portfolio of original short fiction works (coming out next year in her new book!), it isn’t fiction that got Vickie into the world of writing and storytelling.
Nope, it was her very own, real life ghost story.
In the chapter of her life she calls Fun & Chaos (“Now we call it trauma,” Vickie noted. “But back then we thought we were enjoying ourselves,”), Vickie and her twin sister fought over which one had to sleep in the spot at the end of the rug when they had weekend sleepovers with friends and stayed up late watching Saturday Night Live.
Why didn’t Vickie want to sleep there? Because every time she did, she would wake up in the middle of the night to the sight of two Victorian era women, sitting on her mother’s bench, sipping hot tea. Oh, and they were ghosts!
Years passed before the sisters realized they had the exact same reason for not wanting to sleep in that spot in their childhood home and that they had both grown up scared of the exact same chilling sight.
Sharing this haunting memory like only Vickie can, with her natural craft and strategic timing, she found that she loves the power and impact sharing stories can have. (fun fact, this is the first story we ever heard Vickie tell on stage, and it was at the Long Beach Community Theater’s monthly Speak. Easy. storytelling night — epic!)
What got you on stage?
At the end of the summer, Vickie joined a lineup of local storytellers for an annual competition called Long Beach Searches for the Greatest Storyteller. This is an event Vickie had attended for years with her mom, as fans of storytelling. This year, Vickie won.
“When my mom died, I thought if she could do this, then I could put myself out there too,” Vickie said, remembering that her mom had once competed for the very same title.
After being diagnosed with cancer, Vickie’s mom decided to leave her seat in the audience at this event and take the stage herself.
“I knew when she put in her name in the hat for that storytelling night, that was going to be the last time I would get to write with my mom,” Vickie said. “I dropped everything when she called me to look at her story draft for that night.”
Vickie remembers that she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down to be present with her mom’s written words, thinking to herself, ‘this is a moment I want to savor.’
At the event, Vickie’s mother shared the story of her cancer journey and her doctor literally writing her a prescription for cheesecake to encourage her to simply enjoy her final days.
“Her death forced me to be brave.”
— Vickie Wippel
What do you love about Long Beach?
Storytelling and writing are not the only gifts her mother left with Vickie — she also gave her Long Beach.
While studying abroad in college, Vickie’s mother sold the family home and moved to Long Beach. Vickie remembers returning home and feeling tears fall down her face as she got off the 405 freeway on Cherry Avenue … she was terrified of what this new place would hold for her.
Today, Vickie’s family, career, and storytelling community are all right here, and Vickie has a lot that she loves about her home town.
“I love the beach, and I love LB’s art scene,” Vickie said. “I love that you don’t have to go to LA or OC. We have every type of art, and the caliber of the art that you see here is incredible. I feel like we’re just so lucky to have big city theatrical productions here in places that are ten minutes away from home. I also love that it really is a small town. There is so much interconnectivity, everybody knows everybody, and people stay here for generations. Everyone is a neighbor.”
What’s next for You & Storytelling?
Vickie is committed to continuing to hone her craft, and for the last several years, she has been in the classroom at Long Beach City College taking creative writing courses under the instruction of Department Head Jason G. Casem.
“Vickie has a brilliant mind for figurative language, for metaphor and simile,” Jason shared. “Vickie writes really strong and good realism, she can really get to the soul and heart of a character, and really render it in a very unique and humanizing way.”
Jason shared that her classmates frequently cite and reference her work and her characters to help explain and give feedback to each other. He said he is currently working with Vickie on publishing a collection of her work in a book coming out early next year and entitled Still Life. (Editor’s note: The book is out!! See above 🙂
“Vickie is a leader in the classroom and the writing community we have built here — she is a hard worker and a true, true writer.”
— Jason G. Casem, Long Beach City College Creative Writing Dept. Head
In the meantime, Vickie’s holiday book called Unconventional Santa is on Amazon!
What are you Grateful for?
“My husband,” Vickie said without missing a beat. “He values and supports what I’m doing so wholeheartedly that it gives me confidence to do it. That I have his buy-in and that he thinks that this is a worthwhile use of our family time means everything to me. “
