Erin Hallagan Clare

Erin Hallagan Clare is the founder and Artistic Director of Story Parlor, a narrative arts space based in Asheville, NC. Launched in 2015 (formerly known as “Story Bar”), Story Parlor offers community-driven events and workshops designed to bring audiences and artists together through the universal language of creativity and story.

Erin studied film and theatre at Temple University, and earned her Masters in Psychology with a Creativity Studies specialization, where her thesis was dedicated to creative facilitation. She holds a graduate certificate from Pacifica University in Applied Mythology and is a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach as well as a graduate of the Advanced Creativity Coaching program with Dr. Eric Maisel. Her coaching practice, Inward & Artward, is a sister project to Story Parlor, and offers an annual “Creative Facilitator Training” as well as individual support for folks looking to cultivate a sustainable relationship with their creativity. In kinship with her experience as a Creativity Coach, Erin is an accredited Enneagram Practitioner as well as a certified yoga teacher through the Yoga Alliance with over 450 hours in trainings. Prior to these projects, Erin served as the Creative Director of the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference (where she currently remains on the board), in addition to producing the PBS and PRX-affiliated project, On Story, for which she received a Lone Star Emmy for Best Arts/Entertainment Program in 2014.

A writer and storyteller, Erin regularly teaches creativity and personal mythology workshops at both Story Parlor and the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNCA. She hosts a radio show on WPVM 103.7 (www.wpvmfm.org) featuring Story Parlor shows gone by, airing weekly on Sundays at 2pm EST. She has shared stories and written work at The Moth, Listen to This, NC Writers Network, The Great Smokies Writing Program, Jazz Hybrid, Testify, One Page Salon, and is a Moth Story Slam Champion. Her writing can be found in Psychology Today, Thrive Global, and others, and she is a contributing author to The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work published by Routledge.

Erin believes everyone has a story to tell, and that we are all creative. She is dedicated to making a difference through the transformative power of the arts.