Under the Wide Blue Sky: Alberta Stories to Read and Tell

David W. Leonard is the project historian (Northern Alberta) in the
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development. He
is the author of Delayed Frontier: The Peace River Country to 1909 and
co-author of The Lure of the Peace River Coun

In partial reaction to the impersonal nature of communication in the
computer age, storytelling has not only survived in recent times, but
has grown as an art form and even evolved as an academic discipline.
Most schools of library and information studies and English offer
courses in storytelling. In Alberta, the Alberta League Encouraging
Storytelling was founded in 1982. It sponsors festivals, workshops,
retreats, public concerts, story cafés, and radio and TV programs, and
members visit schools, libraries, museums, hospitals, churches, and
seniors’ lodges, all with a view to telling stories and encouraging
others to express themselves in a like manner.

One tangible product is this book, edited by Lisa Hurst-Archer, with
illustrations by Heather Urness. The subject matter ranges from
Aboriginal cultures, to horses and barns, to typewriters and bellybutton
fuzz. The storytellers come from all walks of life and all parts of
Alberta, but they have one thing in common: they have learned to convey
aspects of human experience from the deeply personal perspective that
storytelling allows. Each writer communicates the sense of fulfillment,
even catharsis, one gets from expressing oneself through the vehicle of
a story.

This will not be the last anthology of its kind in Alberta. The
province’s boom economy has produced a great sense of dislocation in
recent times and a corresponding craving for more personal
communication.