Family Folktales: What Are Yours? A guide to preserving family stories

ABOUT Karen Gonzalez

Karen Gonzalez
Karen has been interested in folktales and folklore for more than three decades and has facilitated writing classes and workshops for more than twenty years . Her poetry chapbooks include True North (Origami Poems Project), Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs (Kelsay Books) and forthcoming D More...

BUY ONLINE

Description

Forty-two page ebook explores folktales and how to write them. Includes exercises and examples.
 

Originally, folktales were stories created by ordinary people to be passed on orally from one generation to the next. Over time, with the advent of printing and later the Internet, oral tradition has rapidly been replaced by our ability to collect and store the information electronically (e.g., blogs, Web sites, digital media like CDs) or in books, including scrapbooks, workbooks and journals. The difference between researching and recording ac- curate family histories and writing folktales is that the folk teller (the writer) recounting folktales can focus upon his or her own memories. These rather than genealogy are the stuff of folktales.

"Family Folktales: What Are Yours? provides quick and simple techniques to capture family history and preserve it for generations to come. Karen Pierce Gonzalez revives the lost art of family storytelling by inspiring us to recall favorite people, events and cherished objects in as little as fifteen minutes. Drawing on her experiences as a writer, student of folklore and creative writing teacher, Karen demonstrates how simple and rewarding writing family stories can be. Stories are indeed medicine, and I recommend this book for anyone wanting to deepen their relationships with their families.”

 Catherine Anne Held, Ph.D., Ancestors’ Way