Storytellers

Storytellers are individuals who convey stories through spoken, written, visual, or performative means. They can be traditional oral narrators, authors, journalists, film writers, or digital creators. The core function is to communicate experiences, values, or information by organizing events, characters, and settings into a coherent narrative.

Historically, storytelling is one of the oldest human practices. In many cultures, oral storytellers preserved histories, genealogies, laws, and myths. Examples include West African griots, European bards, and Native storytellers who use performance elements such as voice, gesture, and audience participation. The printing press, literacy, and electronic media broadened reach and shifted technique from memorized performance to crafted prose, scriptwriting, and multimedia storytelling.

Storytellers employ a range of methods. Traditional tools include voice, rhythm, repetition, and audience engagement; modern forms use dialogue, montage, and cinematic pacing. Genres span folktales, myths, legends, fables, journalism, memoirs, and fictional novels. Storytelling often serves entertainment, education, cultural preservation, advocacy, and community building; it can convey ethical lessons or reflect identity and history.

In contemporary contexts, storytelling occurs across platforms—books, radio, podcasts, film, theater, gaming, and social media. Professional storytellers may work as authors, screenwriters, reporters, documentary narrators, or performance artists, and may engage in oral history projects or storytelling festivals.