Applications of Storytelling

Patricia Sawin, Listening for a Life: A Dialogic Ethnography of Bessie Eldreth through Her Songs and Stories.  Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2004.  ISBN 0-87421-582-X.  Folklorist Patricia Sawin here presents the life of North Carolina singer-storyteller Bessie Eldreth, gathered over a fifteen-year friendship.  Examining Eldreth’s stories as part of a dialogue with an ethnographic interviewer, Sawin shows how Eldreth constructed her life in relation to her audience.  Storytellers interested in interviewing – and in telling stories resulting from interviews – will appreciate this sensitive study of the way personal and traditional stories and songs are gathered and shaped into a meaningful repertoire.

Eric Booth, The Everyday Work of Art: Awakening the Extraordinary in Your Daily Life.  Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.com, Inc., 2001.  ISBN 0-595-19380-3.  Not a new book, but new to many storytellers, and rich in thoughts about the value of art (including, of course, storytelling) in education.  An inspiring book about fostering artistic attention to the world, about living (and teaching others to live) as if “art” is a verb, an action strategy.

Cox, Allison M., and David H. Albert eds.  The Healing Heart—Families: Storytelling to Encourage Caring and Healthy Families and The Healing Heart—Communities: Storytelling to Build Strong and Healthy Communities.  New Society Publishers, 2003.  ISBN 0-86571-466-5 and 0-86571-468-1.  Such riches!  Stories, guidelines, experiential accounts of the manifold realms in which storytelling is being used for healing, including health care, bereavement, child rearing, education, adoption, sexuality, racism, violence prevention, substance abuse, homelessness, gerontology, cultural diversity, environmental protection, and community peacekeeping and development.  Dozens of expert practitioners have offered stories for readers to use (with attribution), shared their wisdom, and demonstrated the growing strength of the healing story movement.

Irving, Jan. Stories Never Ending: A Program Guide for Schools and Libraries. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004. ISBN 1-56308-997-1. Despite the title, only one brief chapter (“Storytelling Sampler: Books and Activities about Storytelling”) in this varied collection of suggestions for school and library programs about reading, art, math, food, poetry, and literature deals directly with storytelling. Irving provides a quick recipe for a storytelling festival and a few suggestions for story programs in schools, specifying materials needed and procedures.

Morris, David. Marketing Strategy: A Storytelling Approach.  West Haven, CT: University of New Haven Press, 2003.  ISBN 0-936285-29-x.  Rather than a “storytelling approach,” this idiosyncratic book takes a question-and-answer approach.  Seven of its ten chapters are written entirely in questions with rather telegraphic and sometimes enigmatic answers  (“What is a marketing story?  Actions that are followed by individuals.”).  The interrogative style obscures continuity as well as a sense of Morris’s values.  The final chapters present miscellaneous “case stories,” essays, and quotations.  The effect is suggestive, rather than persuasive.  Copy editing is wanting.

Schneider, William, ...So They Understand: Cultural Issues in Oral History.  Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2002.  ISBN 0-87421-550-1.  Schneider sets out to answer a question that impacts everyone who collects and tells – or writes – the stories of others.  Thinking of the distance between the immediate moment of speaking and the future audiences for what was said, he asks, “How can we preserve a record that they will understand?  Tape recorders and video cameras can help, but they won’t preserve meaning.  What do future generations need to know to understand the record?”  Schneider draws on his experience in South Africa, the Yukon, and Alaska to present a sensitive exploration of how we can and do represent the people whose stories we tell.  Schneider’s discussion makes it clear that absolute faithfulness to cultural and personal meanings can never be achieved, and that questions of intellectual property often take us into gray areas of uncertainty.  But history is “a continuous process of formulating,” and the oral historian/storyteller’s work is part of the process of evolving meaning.

Sima, Judy and Kevin Cordi. Raising Voices: Creating Youth Storytelling Groups and Troupes. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003.  ISBN 1-56308-919-X.  This is the essential book for anyone working with young storytellers, grades 4-12.  Two experienced tellers offer a handbook packed with games, activities, resource guides, reproducibles, and even suggestions about how to raise funds – all in support of a carefully-presented step-by-step guide to planning, creating, and maintaining a youth storytelling group.  Flexible format guides (six weeks, ten weeks) aid novices in planning.  Activities and guidelines suggest multiple ways of strengthening the storytelling skills of the young.  Ample guidance is offered about how to anticipate and avoid potential difficulties.

Wacker, Mary B., and Lori L. Silverman.  Stories Trainers Tell: 55 Ready-to-Use Stories to Make Training Stick.  Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2003.  ISBN 0-7879-6436-0.  Aimed at trainers, speakers, managers, and consultants in the world of businesses and organizations, this collection of usable anecdotes is buttressed by sensible instructions in crafting and performing stories and incorporating them into training sessions, with suggested follow-up discussion points and activities.  Includes excellent advice on legal and ethical use of others’ stories, and a CD in MP3 format of the published stories.

Walsh, John.  The Art of Storytelling:  Easy Steps to Presenting an Unforgettable Story.  Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-8024-3306-5.  Focusing on telling Biblical and Christian stories, Walsh presents a clear and useful set of exercises to help novices develop and perform stories.  Wise instructions cover not only finding and presenting stories, but also handling nervousness and microphones, and using silence to good effect.  Personal anecdotes bring the lessons to life.

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