Award-winning author Kate DiCamillo speaks about the power of telling stories. During this pandemic year, and dark winter, she says “stories are light in a dark world.” The Newbery Award-winning Minnesota writer told a University of Minnesota audience — in a virtual event — that she writes alone, “but the story goes out into the world … and it has my heart in it. … There’s comfort in telling a story.” When we read aloud, DiCamillo says, we are connecting to each other, and we “see each other as fully human.” “Reading aloud binds us together in unexpected ways, she adds. This pandemic year is a “good time to give reading a chance.”