As We Venture Into the Digital Forest

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We in the industry have been saying it for a while: the face of book publishing is changing. It’s looking more like a web page than a book cover. Consider the rise of electronic publishing houses like Booktrope, which is not a vanity press, and experimental sites that make community-building between readers and writers a new phase in the publishing process, such as Richard Nash’s still-in-beta-stages Red Lemonade. On the bright side, this market that started fragmenting two decades ago may have finally found a way to put books and the readers that want them together again, and they’re doing it more efficiently and cost-effectively. On the downside, are we drowning in an ocean of storytelling noise? How can one even decide what to read any more, with more choices than we can reasonably process? Some days even I, a book lover and reader, want to shut all my books, lock them in a room, and run away to silence; they are making as much noise as other media. I’m divided. What say you? As a reader are you happy with the shifting sands, or would you like to travel back in time?

Olympic Storytellers

Planning to attend the 2012 Olympics in London? UK communications company BT is looking for Storytellers ages 16 and up to join their national campaign to chronicle the excitement of the games from a variety of perspectives. The deadline to apply is June 12.

Life Is Story

Hats off to Joshua Olds of The Christian Critic, who has launched a new blog called “Life Is Story” that celebrates the power of narrative to speak into our souls, even into the very meaning of life. Here’s a blog worth following. I promise.

A Father's Gift of Reading

I saw this video on CBS Sunday Morning about a single father who read aloud to his daughter every night for nine years, until she went to college. Inspiring.

There's an App for that?!

Here’s a storytelling order we don’t see too much of: First, an animated award-winning short film about books come to life; then an app based on the film for iPad; then plans to publish “the paper edition of the short film.” I have to admit, even I could get hooked on this kind of thing!

China helps King Gesar storytellers to continue "Eastern Homer"

This is a wonderful story about China’s invested effort in keeping a treasured element of their culture and history alive by finding and funding oral storytellers to tell “The Epic of King Gesar.” Somehow I don’t think this would happen in the U. S. (one-man recitations of “The Odyssey” might not draw large crowds).

Are Artists Liars?

Is it helpful or harmful to think of art as “a lie”? Ian Leslie, author of Born Liars, Why We Can’t Live Without Deceit, writes, “[Artistic lies] have a meaning and resonance beyond their creator. The liar lies on behalf of himself; the artist tells lies on behalf of everyone.” I see his point, but I also think of art as a perspective that has the capacity to be “true,” even if it is imagined.