Telling Our Stories: The 12 Writers Read
With the publication of the remaining essays, Next Avenue is releasing audio versions of each one
The storytelling journey that began last summer is coming to a close with the publication of the final three Telling Our Stories pieces. Not only are all 12 stories available here, we've now uploaded audio versions of each essay, paired with the written version, featuring the voices of the writers telling their own stories. Within each essay, you'll see a box with a photo of the writer and the story title. Click on the box to listen.
One of the first pieces we published in July as part of the Telling Our Stories project was written by Minneapolis teaching artist Dane Stauffer. In "A Guide to Writing Your Own Story," he offered suggestions for how to best write and tell a story, including this: "You tell the story like you are talking to a trusted friend. Tell it like you talk."
As William Butler Yeats wrote, "There are no strangers here; only friends you haven't yet met." With these 12 podcasts, Next Avenue readers have the opportunity to listen to a story told to them by just this kind of friend.
"You tell the story like you are talking to a trusted friend. Tell it like you talk."
Since we began publishing the Telling Our Stories essays, selected from more than 600 submissions, the response from readers – and the writers themselves – has been heartwarming.
We've received many comments about the quality of the writing and the subject matter of the stories.
Some comments have been more personal. Of "By the Window," Barbara Archibald's poignant piece of the anticipatory grief she's feeling regarding her husband's health, a widower commented, "The grief is a daily struggle to hold it together sometimes."
Another reader, who lost her mother in April, said of "Dear Dementia," by Rosanne Corcoran, "I can't read this right now. The image alone sits like a boulder on my heart."
Corcoran, whose essay focuses on being a sandwich caregiver for her family and her mom who lives with them, was particularly grateful that her story was published on Thanksgiving.
"I have to tell you I was over the moon when you selected my essay, but to see that it is the Editor's Pick and released on Thanksgiving Day, which can be a difficult day for so many caregivers, made it all the more special," she wrote.
To Corcoran, and to each one of the Telling Our Stories finalists, Next Avenue would like to express our appreciation to you for sharing your stories with all of us.
And to our readers, we hope you've enjoyed the Telling Our Stories essays. We encourage you to take a few moments to listen to the podcasts.
We'll end this Next Avenue project where we began, with the wise words of writer Joan Didion: "We tell ourselves stories in order to live."
