Articles by Rafe Martin
Here are some of Rafe’s articles about the meaning of stories and the art of storytelling.


What is a Writer?
By Rafe Martin
An earlier version of this article appeared in the February 1998 edition of the online journal Wordwright.

hat is a writer? Or when is someone a writer? That’s how the question actually appeared in my own internal thesaurus-dictionary for I had already written four or five award-winning children’s books before it began to dawn on me, “Maybe I can be a writer.” And it took me even longer to be able to actually say, “I am a writer.” For “writer”to me was such a charged, archetypal word. Like a mantle of gold, like the white bronze poet’s rod of the ancient Irish bards, it seemed there must be some special preparation, some sign, some certificate that makes it clear, and shows one’s worthiness -- “Yes, you are a writer!” Or at least, “Now you are truly a writer.” After all, you need proper certification to teach little children and to operate a motor vehicle. Why not the same kind of healthy acknowledgment for the writer?

Forget it. Writers create their own certificate. Each alone, forges their own certification -- stolen moments sequestered to work on a phrase, a line, a letter, “the book.” The awful anxiety when revealing “the work” to a friend, let alone the world. The nagging need to, “get it down” -- to capture or express thoughts, experiences, emotions, ideas -- in actual, specific words.

A writer, writes. Like a silent signal, the trace of fever, the glint of hidden passion revealed, it will emerge. Oh it will! Beware, I tell you! Even your e-mails will subtly give you away. For they will read as if whoever wrote them actually cared for the words! Or, maybe it will emerge in your conversations; the language twists around upon itself in interesting patterns to form, not just concepts, but clear images in the listener’s mind. Too late. You’ve been spotted. You can’t run and you can’t hide.

You’re already a writer. So you might as well let the beast out to have its way with you, your friends, family, and the world. You are sick, my friend, and the prescription is clear -- find some time each week, minutes or hours, it won’t matter which, and write. Aha. You are a writer.




Why I Write for Children
By Rafe Martin
Originally published in the online journal Wordwright

f you know your purpose you can stick with it, through thick and thin and, in the midst of many dubious and criss-crossing pathways, more easily choose the road that leads to fulfillment of your goal. If I know why I must go from Rochester to New York City or Anchorage, Alaska or any of the other places to which my schedule says I’m supposed to go, it’s more likely I’ll get there -- whatever the route and the weather -- if I am sure about why I need to make the trip.

If you want to write books for children it may also be useful to put a little time into clarifying your purpose or purposes, to establish your personal sense of direction. Many new writers attempt writing “children’s lit” in the hope that it’s simply easier. Certainly, it can be shorter. And, perhaps, in a sense, it is easier, just as haiku is “easier” than writing an epic. Easier, that is, if you have the mind for it, the intention, the eye, ear, and talent to make it work. In the columns to come I plan to share with you something of what makes a good children’s book, how to work with an editor, connect with the right illustrator, even, hopefully sell your manuscript -- things I’ve learned by the painstaking route of personal experience. read more
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Why Folktales?
By Rafe Martin
This article originally appeared in the January 1999 edition of Storytelling Magazine

ometimes people ask me -- “Why are folktales important? Why should they be shared, retold, recreated, put in books today? Are they just remnants of outdated cultures, quaint and charming stories of little current relevance? Why do you so often write recreations of folktales, anyway?”

My answer is that folktales, perhaps better called traditional tales, return us, not to the literal world but to the imagined one. They are doorways into a constant realm of universal dreaming through which archetypes may be embodied, characters and roles and life paths explored.

They are old, as the psyche is old, as the imagination is; old and enduring. The patterns of cause and effect, good and evil which run through these old tales underlie all cultures, underlie even the current dream of unbounded technological accomplishment and success. Folktales, the unauthored, cumulative recasting of many generations’ experience explores the old, that is, fundamental areas of ourselves, areas so common they remain at the bedrock of our humanity.

And because they are old, they are mature. Honed by centuries of telling and retelling they have become concise models of narrative, real building blocks of the imagination. Worn to the nub, all superfluity washed away, they retain a consistency of their own. In them only what needs to happen, happens. And yet, the promise of that happening fulfills our dreams. read more
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King Goodness: A Meditation on the Meaning of a Story
By Rafe Martin
FromThe Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends, and Jataka Tales
Published by Yellow Moon Press

t first glance the Buddhist jataka tale, “King Goodness” seems to be nothing more than a propaganda piece for Buddhist values, specifically for the virtue of non-violence.

Certainly traditional tales world-wide do dramatize values. In them specific causes are shown to lead to complex effects that lead to further causes, etc. But too easily tagged morals can also be the result of what happens when told tales get put into books. They get flattened out, abstracted from their live, oral-performance base and the “moral” takes over from the live experience of hearing and seeing the tale. The story of “King Goodness” has been with us for twenty-five hundred years. I’d like to look at it here, simply as that -- a story -- and see how it might serve its own meaning in ways that “King Goodness” as philosophy cannot.

To summarize the tale: King Goodness is a good king. He is noble, fair, generous, and virtuous. An vengeful minister asserts that the king’s committment to goodness has left his kingdom weak and helpless; that such committment grows from a fundamental incompetence and naivete. This hypothesis is tested by another king in a series of raids into King Goodness’ realm. The raiders are captured. But when they explain that poverty alone motivated them, King Goodness gives them gifts and releases them. Not one is punished further for the crimes they have committed. Convinced that King Goodness’s kingdom can be easily taken, the enemy king invades. As the army advances, King Goodness exhorts his mighty champions to refrain from violence. The army of the invading king wins easily. King Goodness and his one thousand champions are brought to the graveyard and are buried there, up to their necks, and abandoned to the jackals. read more


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The Boy Who Loved Mammoths and My Writing Process
by Rafe Martin
From The Boy Who Loved Mammoths published by Yellow Moon Press

hough many people know my picture book for young readers Will’s Mammoth, not many know how that story actually began. Those who have heard me tell the original story have been amazed to discover that it’s actually a complex tale suitable for older children and even adults, not a story necessarily for young children at all. And they ask, why did I change it to make it a picture book? And would I someday do a story book (one with few illustrations and lots of words) of the original version, the way I originally wrote it, the version my telling is actually based upon? Over the years these requests have piled up on my desk. So with The Boy Who Loved Mammoths, I’ve at last brought out the story as I originally wrote it--with some terrific illustrations by my friend Richard Wehrman. (You can also hear the way I tell this story on the audiocassette Rafe Martin tells his Children’s Books.) Here s the afterword to the book in which I talk about my writing process-Will’s Mammoth-- the picture book so wonderfully illustrated by Caldecott winner Stephen Gammell -- is almost wordless. I decided when working on it that in the picture book we could be inside the child’s imagination. Seeing what he sees. The beauty of a picture book is that it’s very much like storytelling. Listening to a story told, we don’t see words in our minds but pictures. As I worked on the picture book version I began to see images in a key, to use a musical analogy, most appropriate for young readers. When work on the book began I wrote out for Stephen Gammell everything I was seeing in all the silent places of the story and then let him show us, in his wonderful images, what Will imagines. At the end of the picture book Will is asleep, yet he holds in his hand the flower given him by the mammoth in his daydream. And the flower is Real! read more

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Me and Harry Potter
By Rafe Martin

es, it is a catchy title. But it is grounded in reality. It is true. I’ll tell you what I mean.

I am now finishing my first young adult novel titled, Birdwing. It is a mythic, adventurous, mysterious, and sometimes funny story which has been bought by Arthur A. Levine. Now, who, you may well ask, is Arthur A. Levine? Look at your Harry Potter books! Each one is an Arthur A. Levine book. Arthur is my editor and is not only now the most sought after editor in the world, but also the best. Why? It is simple, really. He trusts his own heart and vision. When the first Harry Potter book was being sold all the editors in the U.S. were offered it at auction. All the other editors dutifully went to their marketing and accounting people who told them, “It is British whimsical fantasy. It won’t sell in the States. Let it alone.” Arthur stuck his neck out and bid the highest and bought the book -- and the series. It was a risky move that could have, depending on the outcome, either made or broken him. Well, you know what happened. read more

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“Tell Me a Story”
Rafe Martin makes magic with ’sounds on air’

By Joseph Sorrentino
City Newspaper, October 15 - 21, 2003


Rafe Martin creates entire worlds out of simple words, or, as he puts it, “sounds on air.” He’s not one to run around on stage during his storytelling performances, preferring to simply sit or stand in one place, using gestures or a change in tone to plant his audience --- of children and adults --- firmly in a different time and place. In the midst of a crowded auditorium, he makes you feel as though he’s telling the story directly to you.

Although his published work, which now includes 19 books, is based on native and traditional tales, he brings a freshness to the stories that enables them to speak to us today. Last winter, after a benefit performance Martin held for the Cobblestone School, I came away feeling like this is what people are supposed to do on cold winter nights: We’re supposed to get together and listen to stories. read more


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Thoughts on the Importance, and Necessity of Folklore
By Rafe Martin

This article is based on an oral talk presented by Rafe at the May 2004 International Reading Association National Convention in Reno, Nevada. The article has been written for and will appear in the Spring 2005 issue of The Dragon Lode, The Journal of the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group of The International Reading Association.

Looking back over the last forty years of my thinking, writing, and storytelling I see now that they have all been attempts to explore a question, well, two questions, really, that have been both guiding and haunting me: “What is folklore and why is it important?”

The more I think about it, the more I see that these are not simply questions for me or even just for children, parents, educators and children’s book writers. Joyce compulsively explored these same questions. Shakespeare was bound and beholding to them. Melville cut his teeth on them. I think they lie behind the best of who we collectively and individually, are. read more

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Storytelling and Writing
By Rafe Martin

This article appeared in the December 2004 issue of The Museletter, the renowned journal of the art of storytelling, published by LANES - The League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling.

torytelling and writing children’s literature go together as allies, best friends, even spouses. But they are not the same.

Telling depends on “presence,” “vibes,” that indefinable something built of silence, the body’s flow, voice-tones and rhythms, as well as on words and word-choice as they extend into the thrust and flow of narrative.

But writing? No voice, no tone, no gesture, no silence, no presence; just squiggles on a page. Which is where many wonderful storytellers experience terror. None of the old supports that move listeners sustain us with readers. It’s still storytelling, but suddenly it’s like foreign territory. What will help us cross the stream on a moonless night when the bridge is broken? That’s a paraphrase of a Zen verse I like very much. You’ll find it in commentary to koan # 44 in The Mumonkan, one of the central training texts of Zen tradition. To turn it to our use, it sums up that moment of transition into the unknown very well. How do you step into a new realm when all your old systems are gone? read more

Read more at The Scholastic Connection

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Children’s Literature
By Rafe Martin
www.embracingthechild.org/amartin.html

Read Rafe’s article that speaks about the purpose of Children’s literature at Embracing the Child, a site that salutes “Literature for Learning and Shared Reading”.




“Living the Story - Rafe Martin at the Zen Center”
By Josh Kelman (Oct. 08)

For one weekend in early October we were treated to a storytelling workshop with writer and storyteller, Rafe Martin. Rafe is a part of a living tradition of storytelling that has existed in all human cultures (a million years old, says Rafe). This rich tradition, which involves the listener as well as the teller, is being lost in contemporary culture to media such as television and movies.

The three-hour Sunday morning storytelling workshop was preceded by an evening of Rafe telling stories. The evening crowd had many pajama-clad children who were eager participants. During the story, Rafe would ask the audience for a particular detail-do you know what shark skin feels like? Do you know what wampum is? In this way, and through techniques he talked about the next day, our imaginations were kept active. We were creating the story for ourselves out of the material that Rafe gave us. (There were children who insisted on their own endings!)

At the workshop itself, Rafe generously shared the craft he has been honing for over thirty years. He pulled down the curtain and showed us techniques that make a story come alive. Of course, this is an art and not a science. Rafe showed us some tools. The stories, in the end, must come from inside us.

Rafe talked about how to prepare a story. Memorizing is not the way to go. We may well forget key points or get lost. But more importantly, a storyteller should know a story as if he or she has actually experienced it. This means reading it many times. Mulling it over. Reciting it quietly. Eventually it is as if recalling an experience from memory. In this fashion we naturally use the verbal and non-verbal means of communication we are all familiar with and all share. And we can organize and fine-tune the storyline during the telling much like jazz improvisation. Keeping the listener engaged is key.

Rafe showed that stories grip us because they are more than a narrative. Voice tone, spacing and gestures breathe life into the words. An example was the introduction of a snake into a particular story. One could go into a description of the snake and say how dangerous it was. But with a hissing voice and serpent-like arm, Rafe created a snake right before us. Similarly, he created a noble but dangerous alligator that triggered our fears and curiosities. Rafe essentially became the characters for us. How weak mere words are compared to a genuine demonstration! The living story grabs our attention. And story telling goes back well before written language and, no doubt, language itself. We feel the story without resort to analysis. As so many of us struggle in our Zen practice ìto get beyond words,î it is gratifying to find ourselves for once drawn naturally and pleasantly into a live world without explanation.

We are grateful for all we were shown about the craft of storytelling. Yet we know that it is more than following a recipe. Rafe’s voice and movements as he would climb a tree, or become a storm at sea, or conjure up the fear and awe of a strange forest at night, are not just technique. His fluid embodiment of simple story elements touches us and triggers our imagination to create richness and fullness. In this personal way, stories very effectively teach the nature of character traits such as greed or courage or generosity. We feel these at a deep level since we are involved in their creation. It is with reason that our Teachers have used stories and parables to express the inexpressible. Real teaching demands active participation. The storytelling form is a vehicle that enables the listener to actively experience the teaching. Of course it takes an expert storyteller to make this happen. Thank you Rafe!

Walking Mountains, Newsletter of the Vermont Zen Center, Volume 20, Issue 8

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My Favorite links

www.dianewolkstein.com
Award-winning storyteller Diane Wolstein’s wonderful new storytelling DVD is now available.

www.kidcameraproject.org
Rafe writes: “My daughter, Ariya Martin, was recently volunteering in New Orleans in the very terribly devastated 9th Ward. She was so moved by what she experienced she is going back for several months, this time, not to do toxic clean-up, but to volunteer in her capacity as an artist, photographer, and teacher. She and her friend, Tara, will work on creating darkrooms and teaching children -- many with no schools or classrooms yet in place -- to photograph and document and to regain some creative control of their lives. She will be working with the New Orleans Camera Project. Check her website for periodic updates.”

http://www.inspiredprotagonist.com/
This is the passionate voice of Seventh Generation. Their very successful vision of business and social responsibility means a committment to thinking along traditional Native American (Iroquois) lines -- to consider the effects of our actions and decisions now, seven generations ahead. This is true, long-term thinking, and offers a vision of responsibility to the future which makes sense both practically and imaginatively. Seventh Generation offers a wide-range of ecologically sound products.

www.healingstory.org/home.html
Here’s a site I recommend and have been going to myself to engage in various (and interesting) story-discussions through their “Forum” page. (You’ll find some of my entries on story and storytelling from a healing perspective posted there).

Here’s how The Healing Arts Special Interest Group of the National Storytelling Network describe what they’re about--“Welcome. Our purpose is to explore and promote the use of storytelling in healing. Our goal for this special interest group is to share our experience and our skills, to increase our knowledge of stories and our knowledge of the best ways to use stories to inform, inspire, nurture and heal. We also wish to reach beyond our storytelling community to share with those in other service professions; therapists, clergy, health care practitioners of all kinds, anyone who can see the benefit of story as a tool for healing. Thank you for visiting our web site. We hope you will join us.”

Read an article Rafe wrote for the Healing Story newsletter on page 2.*

*This newsletter is an Adobe document (.pdf). To view, you must have the Adobe Acrobat® Reader installed on your computer. The reader is free (download Adobe Reader here).

The Scholastic Connection
This page, within the rafemartin.com site, presents articles by and about Rafe Martin, relating to the meaning of stories and the art of storytelling.

www.penguinputnam.com
Putman is the publisher of: Boy Who Lived with the Seals, The Brave Little Parrot, The Eagle’s Gift, The Foolish Rabbit’s Big Mistake, The Language of the Birds, Mysterious Tales of Japan, The Rough-Face Girl, The Storytelling Princess and Will’s Mammoth.

www.yellowmoon.com
Yellow Moon is the publisher of The Boy Who Loved Mammoths, and The Hungry Tigressas well as of Rafe’s audio-cassettes (soon to be on CD). They will also soon be re-printing and publishing the award-winning picture book The Boy Who Lived With Seals by Rafe Martin, illustrated by David Shannon.

www.spiritoftrees.org/spirit_of_trees.html
You will find here an abundance of resources, in particular a varied collection of multicultural folktales and myths.

www.sorrentinophotography.com
Here’s another of my favorite sites. Joseph Sorrentino, who interviewed me for City Newspaper is a good friend, and a playwright and photographer.

www.rcowen.com
And here’s the website of Richard Owens, Publisher. They have a great series of autobiographies of children’s book authors called “Meet The Author.” Some of the authors included in their extensive listing are Jane Yolen, Paul Goble, Patricia Polacco, and Rafe Martin.

www.ArthurALevineBooks.com
Arthur A. Levine is a vice-president of Scholastic Inc. and editorial director of Arthur A. Levine Books. He is also the editor and publisher of all the Harry Potter books as well as of Philip Pullman’s, The Golden Compass. He is Rafe Martin’s editor for the novels The World Before This One and Birdwing. In addition, Arthur was Rafe’s editor for the picture books, The Rough-Faced Girl, The Boy Who Lived With Seals, The Brave Little Parrot, The Shark God and The Monkey Bridge, and for the collection, Mysterious Tales of Japan.

www.BreakfastSerials.com
Breakfast Serials is a great new idea. Founded by Newberry-winning author, Avi, its aim is to bring great authors, great stories and families together for a good old fashioned read, by putting superb, serialized stories out, chapter by chapter, in newspapers around the country.

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Last updated December 14, 2009.


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