Word Works: Charles Johnson on Storytelling and the Alpha Narrative

In his essay "Storytelling and the Alpha Narrative," Johnson writes, "All technique, craft, and literary theory we accumulate as writers must be in the service of that most deceptively simple and yet most difficult of achievements - delivering undamaged a whopping good, imaginative, and original story." In his Word Works talk, Johnson reads from and discusses this essay, tracing the plotting of stories that he calls Alpha Narratives - those that "endure, hold us in suspense, and liberate our perceptions." An audience Q&A with writer Margot Kahn (author of Horses That Buck and co-editor of the anthology This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home) follows the talk. This event took place on March 29, 2018 at Seattle's Annex Theatre.