Dear TLA friends,

With the new year, I joined the TLA Network Council as the Blog Editor. Wait….Oh, my. Has it really been a month already? I kept telling myself I would make a proper introduction, and then … well, life would happen.

That’s the way it goes, isn’t it? We get so wrapped up in the work we do out in the world, and in expressing our passion and profession with language, that we forget to stop and collect our thoughts. So let me first say that I love the dedication of this community. Every post and question exudes a profound love and joy for language and its powerful role for humanity.

As for me, my name is Caleb Winebrenner, and I am a storyteller. I’m also a literature teacher, an adjunct professor, and an amateur mythologist — but at the end of the day, “storyteller” captures it all. I love a good, performed story the way a musician loves her instrument or a baker his breads. They are my spiritual sustenance, my intellectual joy, and — thankfully — increasingly how I earn my living in the world. I’ve come to see that many things I’ve explored in my life, whether academically, artistically, socially, or whichever, take storytelling as a lodestone. Stories give me my bearings, and point to a true north — to the best in human learning, growth, understanding, and wisdom.

That’s the orientation I hope to bring to my time stewarding the TLA Blog. No matter the particular art form, our words offer us maps of the world. The poet navigates her world with a unique grace, as does the musician, the actor, the writer, and the storyteller. I pledge to make this a fertile space for the growth and cross-pollination of our ideas and practices.

In many cultures, the traditional storyteller was on par with the shaman. The keeper of songs, stories, and poems had the power to guide, heal, and change the world. Let’s go do that.

If you’d like to get in touch with me, or write for the blog, write to blog (at) tlanetwork (dot) org.

Cheers,
Caleb Winebrenner
2016 Blog Editor