My next project: NC storyblogging

Nov 25, 2005

As I mentioned earlier last week, I’ve got myself a new project to combine my interests in blogging, genealogy, storytelling and oral history. My working title for this is Narratives of Your Life, though “North Carolina storyblogging” is more descriptive.

My goal is to use blogs and podcasts to share the stories of our elders.

The main event in this project, as I’ve initially conceived it, will be a two-day workshop that will bring William Zinsser to teach bloggers about writing memoirs; send bloggers and podcasters across the state to take the oral histories of senior citizens; produce a blogger’s carnival or central site or other online product from those oral histories; and end with a fundraiser dinner with NPR storyteller Kevin Kling.

See the full outline for the project, and come back here to offer your suggestions for improving the concept. Watch this space for news as the details of the project get worked out. If you’re interested in helping me pull off this ambitious project, I’ll gladly welcome your contributions.

Also, if this topic interests you, be sure to attend podcastercon in January, which should be a springboard for Narratives of Your Life.

ADD: I should note I’ve not approached any of the possible sponsors or participants listed in my outline, other than Zinsser, who’s tentatively agreed to come to NC in the Spring, and Kling, who’s not yet responded to my inquiry. Over the next weeks, I’ll begin to recruit sponsors and participants and donors. I’ve posted my outline to get feedback, but also to plant the seed.

UPDATE 12/10: WUNC is on board, with a complementary effort of their own already in the works. For the latest on the Storyblogging project, monitor the Storyblogging category page.

Anton Zuiker ☄