Jim Pfitzer

Chattanooga's Storyteller Jim Pfitzer spent his youth exploring and discovering the Tennessee River Valley around Chattanooga. In his twenties, Jim roamed the west in his old Volkswagen Bus, working jobs ranging from rafting guide in the Tetons to hostel host in the redwoods to educator for a raptor rehabilitation center in Arizona. Along the way, Jim was both telling stories and living them - gaining fodder for his future profession.

In the years since, Jim has performed and taught nationwide at schools, universities, coffeehouses, museums, parties and festivals including being featured at Chattanooga's own TaleSpin storytelling festival. In 2006 he received an ArtsMove grant through Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga and moved back home where he has established himself as Chattanooga's Storyteller. Jim's personal narrative workshops for all ages have gotten numerous adults started in storytelling and inspired countless youths to start writing "just for fun."




Whether he is recalling efforts to raise an owl in his bedroom, sharing a close encounter with a black bear in the redwoods or pontificating on the essence of sweet tea, Jim's stories are reminiscent of a simpler time. Close your eyes and you can almost smell the magnolia blossoms on the breeze and feel the wooden front porch beneath your feet.




Jim prefers paddling a canoe to driving a car, and watching birds to watching television. His passion for slowing down and getting in touch bring a simple, everyman honesty to his stories. Ask Jim what he wants to be when he grows up and he won't think long before responding: "A kid."

Jim's first CD, The Way I Remember It...Stories from an East Tennessee Childhood is available in stores around Chattanooga and he is currently working on a second, live CD, titled Tea and Cookie and Other Threatened Species.



Storyteller and author Donald Davis says that, "Jim Pfitzer's nature stories are not stories of naive ecology, but rather stories of the honest struggle to fit human needs (and sometimes wants and desires) into the fragile order of the natural world." "(Jim's) are stories that remind each one of us that we all have stories to tell... All the ingredients of childhood are here."

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Entertainment

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• Storyteller