Story Craft

Jack Hart, master writing coach and former managing editor of the Oregonian, has guided several Pulitzer Prize–winning narratives to publication. Since its publication in 2011, his book Storycraft has become the definitive guide to crafting narrative nonfiction. This is the book to read to learn the art of storytelling as embodied in the work of writers such as David Grann, Mary Roach, Tracy Kidder, and John McPhee. In this new edition, Hart has expanded the book’s range to delve into podcasting and has incorporated new insights from recent research into storytelling and the brain. He has also added dozens of new examples that illustrate effective narrative nonfiction. This edition of Storycraft is also paired with Wordcraft, a new incarnation of Hart’s earlier book A Writer’s Coach, now also available from Chicago.

While storytelling is a great favorite of preschoolers, many elementary age children are more drawn to crafts and other activities. StoryCraft is an award-winning library program that combines storytelling with crafts in an exciting and engaging activity for children in first through third grades. Each one-hour program includes storytelling, a craft, movement, activities, music, and discussion. This collection of StoryCraft programs presents 50 fun and educational theme-based sessions. Each includes suggestions for promotion, music, crafts, activities, and stories. The sessions also include bibliographies to help direct young readers toward additional reading, as well as diagrams, detailed instructions, and supply lists for the crafts. The themes range from a Jungle Safari to Math Mayhem to a Western Roundup, all encouraging children to enjoy reading in a variety of ways. Each session has plenty of suggestions, so that the program can be customized. Helpful Hints for implementing the program can help any librarian, volunteer, or parent turn a ho-hum storytime into a dazzling StoryCraft time.

Martin Griffin and Jon Mayhew's Storycraft: How to teach narrative writing is an inspiring and practical resource to support secondary school teachers in developing their students' creative writing. This book is not a style manual. Authors Martin Griffin and Jon Mayhew think there are plenty of those about. Instead, it picks apart the craft of narrative writing and equips teachers with activities designed to help their students overcome the difficulties they experience when tasked with creating something from nothing. Written by two fiction writers and English teachers with over forty years' combined experience in education, Storycraft packs in expert guidance relating to idea generation and the nature of story and provides off-the-peg writing prompts that teachers can immediately adopt and adapt in the classroom. The book breaks down the simple components that must be in place for a narrative to work the crafting of character, setting, shape and structure and shares fifty-one stimulating activities that will get students writing narratives regularly, more creatively and with greater confidence . Martin and Jon also include helpful advice in a chapter dedicated to the process of editing in which they provide activities designed to help students diagnose and improve misfiring narratives, and they close the book with invaluable tips for GCSE exam preparation written directly for students and with an impending creative writing exam in mind. Suitable for English teachers of students aged eleven to eighteen.

In Storycraft: The Art of Spiritual Narrative, celebrated author Walter Wangerin Jr. illustrates the power of well-told stories and shows how important embracing story is as an essential tool for preaching and teaching the gospel. The book offers a theology of story that is profoundly incarnational as the Word takes on flesh in practiced speech.

Encouraging children to let their imagination run wild, Emily K. Neubinger offers 40 inventive projects and activities that will inspire kids ages 5 to 12 to express themselves through storytelling. Younger children will love making story stones and a storytelling jar, while older kids will open up and thrive as they embark on guided story walks and inspiring journaling exercises. Sparking creativity while developing a child’s love of language, Show Me a Story will kindle a lifelong passion for both writing and telling original stories.

Story Crafting is about the art of preparing and telling stories. It will help the storyteller craft his own stories, or adapt written stories for oral telling. It also gives the storyteller suggestions on how to tell his stories.