Quail Bell is a storytelling studio for fiction and non-fiction stories. Founded by Christine Stoddard, Quail Bell produces playful, poetic, and investigative multimedia and works with like-minded clients.
In non-fiction, Quail Bell is known for voice-driven, energetic, and informative videos, articles, illustrations, and other content that engage audiences through storytelling, original reporting, and a sense of humor and history.
In fiction, Quail Bell has distinguished itself for comedic and poetic cinema, theatre, and fine art with strong female characters and attention to social issues.
Quail Bell also has experience with livestreaming, live shows, events, and workshops that draw from themes and skills present in its fiction and non-fiction works.
Some of Christine’s favorite collaborators are ones she met doing indie films, comedy, and poetry. Together, The Quail Bell Crew brings a DIY ethos to making polished, quality creations that are still irreverent, rebellious, and fun. We love producing character-driven, artful works with socially aware clients. Hire us for your film, video, live event, and publishing needs. We offer full-service writing, scripting, videography, hosting, and more for broadcast, digital media, and theater.
What is Quail Bell’s editorial mission? What does Quail Bell publish on its website?
Quail Bell is a multimedia arts, humor, and investigative journalism outlet for real and unreal stories. Rooted in oral history and folklore, we have a special love for the imaginary, nostalgic, and otherworldly, while connecting to urgent social issues of our time. Our go-to spell? Art + Ideas = Magic. Headquartered in New York City, Quail Bell publishes work by multi-hyphenate Christine Stoddard, as well as curated content from around the world. This work is curated by Gretchen Gales and Ghia Vitale, with assistance from Aaron Gold.
The Quail Bell Crew is a team of fairy punks who are citizens of the world. We publish work that values and critiques social issues and oddities. We are funny, forward-thinking, and critically-minded. We care deeply about diverse personal narratives and expanded notions of creative expression. In all that we do, the Quail Bell Crew encourages original thought, open dialogue and community-building.
Quail Bell stemmed from a magazine Christine founded as an undergrad at VCUarts in Richmond, Virginia. It grew into a woman-run publication of intersectional feminists. The team wanted to challenge readers but also bring sparkle to their lives and dream of possibilities together. The name “Quail Bell” comes from a fairy tale that Christine wrote in college.
Christine Stoddard is a multimedia creator and artist named one of Brooklyn Magazine’s Top 50 Most Fascinating People. She makes original and client work through her company Quail Bell, winner of a Brooklyn Arts Council entrepreneurial grant.
Christine has conceived critically-acclaimed books, plays, films, comedy acts, and visual art. Some notable projects include 5 Ways I Didn’t Marry You, Art Bitch, Uncontested, “Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares,” Bottled, Sirena’s Gallery, and Heaven Is a Photograph. Currently, she co-hosts Don’t Mind If I Don’t with Aaron Gold and runs the YouTube channel Stoddard Says. Her latest feature film is Her Garden. She earned graduate degrees from Columbia University and The City College of New York-CUNY.
Find her on YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms @StoddardSays.
Some reviews and testimonies of Christine Stoddard’s solo and collaborative work:
“A prolific writer and visual artist” –Ms. Magazine
“Stoddard is a committed storyteller who never disappoints.”
Christine Sloan Stoddard, an American-Salvadoran author based in Brooklyn, New York, is a great example of someone who embodies all of the occupations that come to mind when we think of a creative person.
As a woman who has seen the inequality in this world, Stoddard focuses her work on exactly this, therefore bringing justified awareness through her works of art and literature. In this interview, Stoddard discusses the depth of her characters, her multimedia elements, and the reasons why she can write and create the masterful works that she has.
This collection offers a quiet juxtaposition of the New York City (NYC) experiences that is charming and unmistakable.
“daring, experimental essay-film that goes into the depths of ancestral longing and cultural displacement”
“Although this movie is set in a specific historical moment, it speaks to universal human experiences of loss and loneliness, as well as hope and recovery.”
“Stoddard and [Aaron] Gold do a masterful job of inhabiting a set of idiosyncratic characters while adjusting to and integrating what they elicit from the audience.”
– Thinking Theater NYC re: “The Coronation of Queen Jaguar”
“…an unapologetic journey in stories that are often muted or altogether erased but which ultimately need to exist in contemporary narratives—and in our lives.”
–Luna Luna Magazine re: Chica/Mujer
“There’s a good deal to admire about the chapbook. From the deft incorporation of humor to the thoughtful use of the intersections between theater, racial dynamics, and gender assumptions, Stoddard rewards readers in both subtle and direct ways. It’s a chapbook that pleases readers on a casual perusal and upon a deeper examination.”
–Whale Road Review re: Lavinia Moves to New York
Christine Stoddard
interviews Aaron Gold