Story-Centered Interviews: A Fresh Approach for Historians and Writers

by Daniel Stewart | Oct 30, 2017 | Featured, Narrative Nonfiction, Workshops

In this workshop, instead of treating interviews as sources of often-unreliable factual information, we’ll approach interviews as invaluable, even sacred opportunities for people to tell us the stories that explain who they are and the lives they have lived. We’ll put a priority upon humanistic and journalistic approaches over those of social science, focusing not on the “informant” but on the person. Instead of going into an interview with long lists of fact-soliciting questions, our preparation and practice will rely upon careful listening and the sympathetic pursuit of the stories people use to make sense of their lives.