''Storyteller'' is a collection of works, including photographs, poetry, and short stories by

Leslie Marmon Silko Leslie Marmon Silko (born Leslie Marmon; born March 5, 1948) is an American writer. A Laguna Pueblo Indian woman, she is one of the key figures in the First Wave of what literary critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance ...

. It is her second published book, following ''

Ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

''. The work is a combination of stories and poetry inspired by traditional

Laguna Pueblo The Laguna Pueblo ( Western Keres: Kawaika ʰɑwɑjkʰɑ is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, near the city of Albuquerque, in the United States. Part of the Laguna territory is inclu ...

storytelling. Silko's writings in ''Storyteller'' are influenced by her upbringing in Laguna,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, where she was surrounded by traditional Laguna Pueblo values but was also educated in a Euro-American system. Her education began with kindergarten at a

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

school called the Laguna Day School "where the speaking of the Laguna language was punished." Silko primarily focuses on the Laguna Pueblo in ''Storyteller;'' however, she also draws influence from

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

culture, which she experienced when she resided in Alaska's Rosewater Foundation-on- Ketchikan Creek while writing ''

.'' Many of the poems and short stories collected in ''Storyteller'' have been reprinted, and several were published previously''.'' The book itself has been published three times between 1981 and 2012.

Background

Editions and versions

''Storyteller'' was initially published by Seaver Books in 1981. In 1989

Richard Seaver Richard Woodward Seaver (December 31, 1926 – January 5, 2009) was an American translator, editor and publisher. Seaver was instrumental in defying censorship, to bring to light works by authors such as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Henry Mi ...

republished ''Storyteller'' under his publishing house

Arcade Publishing Arcade Publishing is an independent trade publishing company that started in 1988 in New York, USA. It publishes American and world fiction and nonfiction. The company was started and run by Richard Seaver and his wife Jeannette.Weber, Bruce (Ja ...

. Seaver was also Silko's editor for ''Ceremony'', her preceding novel published in 1977 under

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...

. Although Seaver was known for working with authors outside of the literary establishment and challenging censorship, when working on ''Ceremony'', he attempted to edits parts that were integral to Silko's story. In one attempt he tried to edit the scene in which a character, Betonie, explains "it was Indian witchery that made white people in the first place," a story which is also told and elaborated upon in ''Storyteller.'' Seaver also initially deleted the poem that concluded ''Ceremony'', wanting a more conventional end to the novel. However, Silko did not approve those changes, and Seaver ultimately conceded. In 1989 Seaver then went on to republish the even less conventional ''Storyteller'' under Arcade Publishing, which he founded with his wife in 1988. The first version of ''Storyteller'' was oriented horizontally because Silko wanted to experiment with space, especially with her poetry. Silko notes in her "Introduction" to the Penguin version of ''Storyteller'' that she carefully considered the sizing, orientation, and space on the pages of ''Storyteller'' in order to “convey time and distance and feeling of the story as it was told aloud.”

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. Both editions are nine by seven inches, but the second edition is oriented vertically rather than horizontally. Despite the reduction in space, Silko notes that the “wide poems” still have enough room in the most recent edition. Because of this change in orientation, Silko had to remove and replace several photos. However, she added more photos of her family to the second edition.

Genre

The Penguin Random House website categorizes ''Storyteller'' as "Poetry" and "Fiction." However, as a collection, it is usually described through explaining its various mediums. In N. Scott Momoday's review of ''Storyteller'' in 1981, he calls it "a rich, many-faceted book onsistingof short stories, anecdotes, folktales, poems, historical and autobiographical notes, and photographs."

Photography

In the "Introduction" to the second version of ''Storyteller'', Silko writes that she wanted readers to have a sense about the landscape and family she came from, so she included photographs as a way to help give readers this context. Silko's father,

Lee Marmon Leland Howard Marmon (September 20, 1925 – March 31, 2021) was a Native American photographer and author. Marmon is known for his black-and-white portraits of tribal elders. Marmon's works have appeared in galleries, books, and magazines, inc ...

, took the majority of the photos featured in ''Storyteller''. She writes of his contribution in her "Acknowledgements." All the photos in ''Storyteller'' are in black and white. The majority of the photos feature Silko and her family as well as the

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

s and landscape surrounding her Laguna village. Within the "Acknowledgements," Silko also includes a link to the New Mexico Digital Collections, which showcases the Lee Marmon collection of photos. In "The Telling Which Continues": Oral Tradition and the Written Word in Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller,"'' Bernard Hirsch notes how the photographs "are arranged to suggest the circular design of Storyteller, a design characteristic of oral tradition." According to Hirsh, the photographs and their arrangements help merge the "personal, historical, and cultural levels of being and experience."

Poetry

The poems in ''Storyteller'' make up the bulk of the collection, greatly outnumbering the amount of short stories and photographs they accompany. Silko has commented on her poetic structure, saying, “I gave examples of what I heard as best as I could remember, and how I developed these elements into prose, into fiction, and into poetry, moving from what was basically an oral tradition into a written tradition.” Silko gives readers further insight into her writing process in the untitled poem that begins “This is the way Aunt Susie told the story.” She says, “I write when I still hear / her voice as she tells the story.” In a review of ''Storyteller'', Jim Ruppert points out that Silko uses characters and voices in poems and "creates a reality the merges with" extra-textual reality. POble_Laguna

Short stories

Since publishing ''Storyteller'' in the 1980s, Silko has primarily published novels and long works, rather than short stories or collections. "Yellow Woman" and "Lullaby," short stories published within ''Storyteller,'' have been widely anthologized. In ''The Old Lady Trill, the Victory Yell: The Power of Women in Native American Literature'', Patrice Hollrah noted, "Silko prefers promoting a political agenda through her stories rather than any other format...." In ''Storyteller'' Silko addresses social issues resulting from colonialism and colliding cultures, which can be seen in some of the works in the collection such as "Tony’s Story," which in part deals with racial discrimination against American Indian men. Silko's short stories have been compared to work by Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston.

Major themes

Storytelling

In the "Introduction" to ''Storyteller'', Silko writes about the history and importance of language and storytelling as culture and as a way to survive. She details the importance of storytelling both for all people and specifically for the Laguna people. She writes, “The entire culture, all the knowledge, experience, and beliefs, were kept in the human memory of the Pueblo in the form of narratives that were told and retold from generation to generation." Silko notes that the Laguna people were all responsible for telling stories, which were “narrative accounts of incidents that the teller has experienced or heard about.” She writes that she was lucky to have been born at a time when the older members of her community still would tell stories for the children.

Oral tradition

Critics have noted the influence of the oral tradition in ''Storyteller''. Paul Lorenz explains in ''The Other Side of'' ''Leslie Marmon Silko's "Storyteller,"'' "For the story, the location of events in time is essentially meaningless." Additionally, Bernard Hirsh notes that “The experience in living the reality revealed in her grandfather’s stories has shown her the oneness of past and present, of historical and mythic time, and of the stories, and the people.” Even though Silko is inspired by the oral tradition and storytelling, she does not consider herself a traditional storyteller. She noted in an interview with Kim Barnes, "I write them down because I like seeing how I can translate this sort of feeling or flavor or sense of a story that's told and heard on to the page."

Reception

When Silko first published ''Storyteller'', she did not anticipate the book having a wide audience. It has generally been well received and is often placed on college reading lists. In an interview with Kim Barnes, Silko explained that “The book is written for people who are interested in that relationship between the spoken and the written.” ''Storyteller'' was reviewed by writer N. Scott Momoday in the ''New York Times'' after the books initial release in 1981. In his review he calls the book “a melange." He notes there are “moments of considerable beauty and intensity, moments in which, according to the central tenet of storytelling, the language is celebrated.” He also praises Silko for her sense of humor and keen eye for where “the profound and the mundane often run together in our daily lives.” He closes noting the importance of the distinction of a storyteller and writes, “If ilkois not yet a storyteller, she promises to become one.” When ''Storyteller'' was republished in 2012 under Penguin, the ''New York Times'' placed ''Storyteller'' on its Sunday Book Review ''Paperback Row.'' When first published in 1981, it made the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' “Notable" books list. It was also made a "Noteworthy" paperback book by Alex Raksin in the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 1987. When it was reissued in 1989 through Arcade Publishing, ''Storyteller'' made the "Fiction Best Sellers" list for Southern California in the ''LA Times''.

Previously published

Some of Silko's poems and short stories in Storyteller were also published in other contexts and anthologies. The list of these publications is supplied within the Penguin version as follows: * ''American Literature: Themes and Writers (third edition)'' * ''Chicago Review'' * ''Fiction's Journey: 50 Stories'' * ''Focus on America'' * ''Rocky Mountain Magazine'' * ''Series E, Macmillan English'' * ''Sight and Insight: Steps in the Writing Process'' * ''The Best American Short Stories 1975'' * ''The Ethnic American Woman: Problems, Protests, Lifestyle'' * ''The Man to Send Rain Clouds'' * ''The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature'' * ''The Third Woman'' * ''200 Years of Great American Short Stories'' * ''Voices of the Rainbow''

''Storyteller'' has received several critical studies including: *''Leslie Marmon Silko: A Collection of Critical Essays'' by Louise K. Barnett, James L. Thorson. See the articles by Linda Krumholz ("Native Designs: Silko's ''Storyteller'' and the Reader's Initiation"), Helen Jaskoski ("To Tell a Good Story"), and Elizabeth McHenry ("Spinning a Fiction of Culture: Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''"). *See chapter 1 of ''Learning to Write "Indian": The Boarding-School Experience and American Indian Literature'' by Amelia V. Katanski. *"'The Way I Heard It': Autobiography, Tricksters, and Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Domina, Lynn; ''

Studies in American Indian Literatures ''Studies in American Indian Literatures'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering Native American literature. It is published by the University of Nebraska Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of American Indian Literat ...

', 2007 Fall; 19 (3): 45–67. *"''Storyteller'': Leslie Marmon Silko's Reapproriation of Native American History and Identity." By: Carsten, Cynthia; ''Wíčazo Ša Review'', 2006 Fall; 21 (2): 105–26. *"Improvisations on the Genre:

Maxine Hong Kingston Maxine Hong Kingston (; born Maxine Ting Ting Hong;Huntley, E. D. (2001). ''Maxine Hong Kingston: A Critical Companion'', p. 1. October 27, 1940) is an American novelist. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, wher ...

's and Leslie Marmon Silko's (Auto)Biographical Writings." By: Ziarkowska, Joanna; ''Americana: E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary'', 2006 Spring; 2 (1):

o pagination O, or o, is the fifteenth Letter (alphabet), letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in ...

*"Narrative Power in Native American Fiction: Reflections on Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller'' (1981)." By: Johansen, Ib; ''p.o.v: A Danish Journal of Film Studies'', 2004 Dec; 18: 78–88. *"American Indian Literature and Eco-Vision: A Case Study of Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Kang, Ja Mo; ''Journal of English Language and Literature/Yongo Yongmunhak'', 2001; 47 (2): 527–48. *"The Silence of the Bears: Leslie Marmon Silko's Writerly Act of Spiritual Storytelling." By: Fitz, Brewster E.. IN: Iftekharrudin, Boyden, Rohrberger, and Claudet, ''The Postmodern Short Story: Forms and Issues''. Westport, CT: Praeger; 2003. pp. 77–85. *"Legal Hunger: Law, Narrative, and Orality in Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller'' and ''Almanac of the Dead''." By: Karno, Valerie; ''College Literature'', 2001 Winter; 28 (1): 29–45. *"Death and the Power of Words in Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Pellérin, Simone. IN: Castillo and Da Rosa, ''Native American Women in Literature and Culture''. Porto, Portugal: Fernando Pessoa UP; 1997. pp. 119–26. *"''Storyteller'': Revising the Narrative Schematic." By: Hernandez, Dharma Thornton; ''Pacific Coast Philology'', 1996; 31 (1): 54–67. *"Mother-Daughter Relationships as Epistemological Structures: Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Almanac of the Dead'' and ''Storyteller''." By: Evans, Charlene Taylor. IN: Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth (ed.) ''Women of Color: Mother-Daughter Relationships in 20th Century Literature''. Austin: U of Texas P; 1996. pp. 172–87. *"Laughing, Crying, Surviving: The Pragmatic Politics of Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Browdy de Hernandez, Jennifer; ''A/B: Auto/Biography Studies'', 1994 Spring; 9 (1): 18–42. *"'To Understand This World Differently': Reading and Subversion in Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Krumholz, Linda J.; ''ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature'', 1994 Jan; 25 (1): 89-113. *"Storyteller as

Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...

Basket." By: Langen, Toby C. S.; ''Studies in American Indian Literatures: The Journal of the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures'', 1993 Spring; 5 (1): 7-24. *"The Web of Meaning: Naming the Absent Mother in ''Storyteller''." By: Jones, Patricia. IN: Graulich, Melody (ed.) ''Leslie Marmon Silko, "Yellow Woman"''. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP; 1993. pp. 213–32. *"The Other Story of Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Lorenz, Paul H.; ''South Central Review'', 1991 Winter; 8 (4): 59–75. *"The Dialogic of Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Krupat, Arnold. IN: Vizenor, Gerald (ed.) ''Narrative Chance: Postmodern Discourse on Native American Indian Literatures''. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P; 1989. pp. 55–68. *"Yellow Woman, Old and New: Oral Tradition and Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Thompson, Joan; ''The Wíčazo Ša Review'', 1989 Fall; 5 (2): 22–25. *"'The telling which continues': Oral Tradition and the Written Word in Leslie Marmon Silko's ''Storyteller''." By: Hirsch, Bernard A.; ''American Indian Quarterly'', 1988 Winter; 12 (1): 1-26.

References

{{Portal, Literature American short story collections Works by Leslie Marmon Silko 1981 short story collections Native American short story collections Arcade Publishing books