Books and Media
Story. Conflict. Empathy. Change.
I work with stories.
Often this is at the intersection of narrative and peace, using storytelling as a tool for healing, meaning making, creating connection, bridging divides, amplifying unheard voices, and transforming relationships.
I help people and organizations find, craft, and tell the stories that matter.
I’ve authored and contributed to a number of projects. I’m drawn to the stories people rarely hear. Those are the ones that often help us most.
I speak and teach on topics like narrative and storytelling, reconciliation and forgiveness, conflict transformation and peacebuilding, Israel-Palestine, incarceration, and more.
I consult with organizations, individuals, and movements to deliver powerful programs, shape narrative strategy, curate storytelling, and more.
I create and facilitate residential retreats for deep dives into personal stories, empathic encounters with others, and practicing the principles of peace.
Tenx9 Nashville is a Belfast-originated community storytelling night where 9 people have up to ten minutes each to tell a real story from their lives, based on a theme. I’ve been hosting this in Nashville monthly since I brought it back from Belfast in September 2013.
Alongside story expert David Hutchens, I facilitate workshops for organizations around the world to help find and tell the stories that define them.
Endorsements
“[Where the River Bends] is important … We cannot encounter these pages and remain unaffected. But what will happen to us if we listen to those we tend to ignore? This book is one way to find out. I encourage us all to listen.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, from the foreword
“[I Am Not Your Enemy is] important, timely, and needed … McRay … has prepared the path for us to start that journey in finding wisdom again in stories as opposed to fear.”
Ishmael Beah, bestselling author of A Long Way Gone, from the foreword
“Michael McRay gets poignantly to the heart of the matter. [I Am Not Your Enemy] is a book about the varied faces of grief and love and reconciliation. It is incisive, smart, and acutely necessary for our times.”
Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon, winner of National Book Award
“We can theorize about what forgiveness really means, or we can talk and listen to those we have viewed as unforgivable. Where the River Bends … offers depth of insight and perspective that is rare yet essential if we are going to move to higher ground.”
Michelle Alexander, bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
“What Michael McRay offers us [in I Am Not Your Enemy] is the collective testimony of people across the world whose stories rebuke … cheap reconciliation and challenge us to aim for more.”
Emma Jordan-Simpson, Executive Director of Fellowship of Reconciliation
“Michael McRay has written a stunning book … [I Am Not Your Enemy] can help all of us get our bearings…”
Becca Stevens, Founder & President, Thistle Farms
“Michael McRay brilliantly weaves stories … Read [I Am Not Your Enemy] and be moved to tears yet also inspired by hope.”
Raja Shehadeh, critically acclaimed author of Palestinian Walks
“I Am Not Your Enemy is a timely illustration of the human spirit craving liberation, justice, dignity and equality.”
Samar Ali, Founding President of Millions of Conversations
“[I Am Not Your Enemy] is a muscle, an ache, a practice of asking the troubling questions at the heart of peace.”
Pádraig Ó Tuama, author, theologian, host of Poetry Unbound with On Being
“[I Am Not Your Enemy] is so important. Michael McRay is a caretaker of stories, and he’s a master at it.”
Shane Claiborne, bestselling author of The Irresistible Revolution
“[I Am Not Your Enemy] is the gift of a brilliant book and … a more timely set of stories can hardly be imagined.”
John Paul Lederach, author of The Moral Imagination, Professor Emeritus at The Kroc Institute of Notre Dame
“Surprisingly invitational… [Letters from “Apartheid Street”] is a book worth reading and rereading. As a guide for activism, I hope these reflections will have a profoundly rippling effect.”
Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee