Speak Up: True stories. Real people.

09/08/2026

Hello friends!

My next book, "Cardboard Knight," is now available for preorder!

And if you're a storytelling fan, this book might have a special appeal:

I took the stories I've been telling onstage for twenty years and gave them back to the boy who lived them.

The book is fiction, but if you know me and any of my stories, you'll quickly realize that this book's foundation is my childhood, altered at times for fictional purposes, but still very much me.

I think you're really going to like it.

Preorders are enormously important to books. They help determine first run sizes, marketing and publicity spend, media attention, and more.

So if you'd consider preordering, it would mean the world to me.

A brief description of the novel:
_____________________________________

"Dear Mr. Henshaw" meets "Dead End in Norvelt" in this sharply humorous and nostalgic epistolary middle-grade debut from Matthew Dicks, about navigating life's challenges and finding your place in the world.

Eleven-year-old Jack Mandeville's life is complicated. Between dealing with his parents' divorce and new (annoying) stepdad and looking after his siblings, a lot is changing as he heads into a new school year.

When Jack gets a school assignment to send letters to an astronaut, he realizes he’s writing to someone who isn't weighed down by the same kind of earthly troubles. But as the year goes on and he keeps writing the letters, he discovers that perhaps 'complicated' isn't such a bad thing. Maybe it's what makes us all human.

Beloved Moth storyteller Matthew Dicks makes his middle-grade debut with this funny and heartfelt epistolary novel following a spectacular year in the life of an eleven-year-old growing up in the 1980s.
_____________________________________

So if you could preorder the book now and share the book and the preorder request with your friends, family, and enemies, I would be eternally grateful.

It's a book originally written for adults, then transformed into something more appropriate for middle-grade humans, but it's still completely appropriate in so many ways for adults, too.

And it's set in the 1980s, so it's full of nostalgia, too

So preorder now. Right this very second.

Please?

You can preorder at your favorite local bookstore, which is always a great choice, or you can preorder using any of these links below:

Preorder at Riverbend Books, my local, beloved indie bookstore, in West Hartford, CT: https://riverbendbookshop.com/list/preorder-cardboard-knight

Preorder from my first favorite bookstore, RJ Julia in Madison CT:
https://rjjulia.com/search?q=cardboard%20knight

Preorder from Amazon (if you must):
https://amzn.to/4iLuTY0

08/27/2026

Hello storytelling fans!

Elysha and I hope your summer is coming to a lovely, peaceful end and that the autumn is looking bright and beautiful for you all.

We didn't have any shows this summer, other than a "Matt and Jeni Are Unprepared" in lovely New Milford, CT, but we have lots of shows coming up in the fall, and dates, themes, and tickets are now available.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW.

Want to tell a story?

Check out the themes and send us a one-paragraph pitch that summarizes your story — beginning, middle, and end.

We are looking for storytellers for our October 17 and December 5 shows.

Send your pitch to [email protected]

Deadline for casting is SEPTEMBER 1.

UPCOMING SPEAK UP EVENTS

October 3
Great Hartford Story Slam: "Falling"
Hartford Flavor Company
7:00 PM EST

This is an open-mic storytelling competition produced in conjunction with Tell Me Another. Drop your name in the hat and cross your fingers. Maybe you'll get to tell a story and vie for the title of champion of the Great Hartford Story Slam!
Tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-hartford-story-slam-2026-tickets-1980276217474

October 17
Speak Up Storytelling: "Do Overs"
Connecticut Museum of Culture and History
7:00 PM EST
Tickets here:
https://www.connecticutmuseum.org/event/speak-up-do-overs/

October 24
Speak Up Storytelling benefit show
Beth David Synagogue
Details to come!

December 5
Speak Up Storytelling: "The Things We Give"
Connecticut Museum of Culture and History
7:00 PM EST
Tickets here:
https://www.connecticutmuseum.org/event/speak-up-the-things-we-give/

December 13
Speak Up Storytelling / Voice of Hope event
Jewish Community Center, Hartford, CT
2:00 PM EST
Details to come!

05/30/2026

Join us in July for the fourth edition of Matt and Jeni Are Unprepared.

July 11, 2026
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

Merryall Center — 8 Chapel Hill Rd, New Milford, CT

Tickets here! Seating is limited, so get your tickets now!

Great stories don’t have to be rehearsed. Sometimes the best ones happen on the spot.

Matthew Dicks (a record 62-time Moth StorySLAM winner and 10-time GrandSLAM champion) and Jeni Bonaldo (Moth StorySLAM winner) take prompts straight from the audience and spin them into brand-new, completely improvised, true stories in real time.

No scripts.
No safety net.
Just two professionals who should absolutely know better.

It's part show, part masterclass, part friendly competition.

You'll laugh, you'll feel things you didn't expect to feel, and you'll leave knowing a little more about how to tell your own stories. Oh, and you get to vote on who won.

Hosted by Elysha Dicks.

Seating limited. Tickets here:

Storytelling on a Highwire!

05/08/2026

Speak Up Storytelling on Saturday night!
Museum for Culture and History. 7:00 PM

Cast features Alison Overholt, David Golder, Kaia Pazdersky, Teisa Nicoli, and Matthew Dicks.

Music by Charlie Dicks.
Hosted by Elysha Dicks.

Info in the We-Ha News:

The upcoming Speak Up Storytelling event on Saturday, May 9, will West Hartford Public Schools teacher Matthew Dicks, and will be hosted by Elysha Dicks. Submitted Speak Up is Saturday night! Our cast features brand-new storytellers, Moth storytellers, bestselling authors, and an Emmy and Peabody aw...

05/07/2026

Enrollment is now open for the next Storyworthy Storytelling Foundations 30-Day Accelerator.

This 30-day guided program is designed to help you become a clearer, more confident, and more compelling communicator.

You’ll learn how to find meaningful moments from your life, shape them into stories, and deliver them in a way that helps people listen, care, and remember.

The cohort includes the full Storytelling Foundations curriculum, live coaching, community support, and a live Q&A with Matthew Dicks.

Because this is a small-group experience, we’re limiting enrollment to 10 seats.

The cohort begins May 17.

Details and enrollment here:

The best storytelling training from an award-winning and professional storyteller. Anatomy of a Story: Craft Your Most Powerful Stories in Just One Week. Inside the Course You'll Learn: A Complete Storytelling Blueprint. Learn the Fundamentals of Storytelling

05/06/2026

Speak Up is SATURDAY NIGHT!

Introducing our Emmy and Peabody award-winning cast member, Alison Overholt!

Plus our surprise live musician, who will be performing before the show and during intermission:

Charlie Dicks!

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
https://www.connecticutmuseum.org/event/speak-up-rebellious/

Saturday, May 9, at the Museum for Culture and History in Hartford.

Showtime is 7:00 PM.

The theme of the show is "Rebellious." We have stories about childhood battles, eternal struggles, and desperate attempts to fight against the tyranny of authoritarians, dictators, and parents,

Maybe all three.

Storytellers include:

David Golder
Kaia Pazdersky
Teisa Nicoli
Alison Overholt
Matthew Dicks

The show will be hosted by Elysha Dicks, of course,

And these shows are the best deal in town! In addition to tickets to the show, you will also receive free beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks, as well as admission to the museum prior to the show.

Tickets here.

A bit about some of our storytellers:

Alison Overholt is a Peabody and Emmy award-winning editor, producer and media executive who has spent her career telling stories about ambition, resilience, and what makes people tick. She’s held leadership roles at some of the world’s biggest media brands, including Oprah Daily and ESPN (where she was the first woman to run a national sports magazine). Along the way, she’s interviewed everyone from elite athletes to cultural icons — and learned that the best stories are usually the ones people almost didn’t tell. These days, Alison teaches the business of media at Columbia Journalism School and runs her own creative content studio, helping brands and individuals shape the stories they tell about themselves. Her favorite local client is Tea Leaf Realty, where she and the team help people find the setting for their next chapter. Alison is cautiously excited to trade the editor’s desk for the storyteller’s mic on the Speak Up stage.

David Golder is an employment attorney at Jackson Lewis PC, which basically means he spends his days helping companies avoid the kinds of workplace disasters that end up in cautionary HR training videos. If there’s an employment issue, he’s seen it, solved it, or prevented it before anyone even had time to panic. He lives in West Hartford with his wife (Shera) and younger daughter (Alex). His older daughter (Pauline) abandoned the family and went to college.

Kaia Pazdersky once catsat for Matthew and Elysha's cats, Tobi and Pluto. They broke every potted plant in the kitchen, and she felt responsible. She never catsat again.

Tesia Nicoli is a storyteller, speaker, marketing leader, and creative producer with a background in theater, film, and live performance. Raised in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, she credits her proximity to NYC and Philadelphia for helping spark a passion for the stage. A longtime performer and founder of a community theater company she led for nearly ten years, she believes great stories can entertain, connect, and shift perspective. Tesia recently graduated magna cm laude in Communication Studies, with a minor in Performance & Storytelling, and was selected as her class commencement speaker. She is excited to join SpeakUp and share a story about challenging rules, trusting instinct, and speaking up when it matters most.

Matthew Dicks is an award-winning elementary school teacher and internationally bestselling author of several novels and nonfiction titles, including Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling and Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Build Your Business and Brand. He is a record 64-time Moth StorySLAM and 10-time GrandSLAM champion who performs for audiences worldwide. He’s the founder of Speak Up, a Hartford-based storytelling organization, and CEO of Storyworthy, a company that produces online storytelling instruction and workshops. He teaches public speaking, storytelling, and marketing and branding strategies to corporations, universities, and many more.