Writing down the stories the elders tell

I grew up in a village high in the mountains, where the evenings were long and the old people told stories by the stove. I left to study, and when I came back my grandfather was too frail to tell them any more. I began to ask the other elders to sit with me and a small recorder, and to say it all again so that it would not be lost.

Now I record a story, write it down the same night and send one a week as a letter. I do not change what people say. I only tidy it so it reads well, and I always give the story back to the person who told it before I share it.

I am not a historian or a trained interviewer. I am someone who listens, and what I sell is what I learned: collections of the stories I have written down, a deck of questions, a guide to recording, and a course for anyone who wants to collect the stories of their own family or village.