Nataša Rogelja Caf
Stories are journeys, full of incredible coincidences, magical heroes, ambivalent landscapes, and unearthly creatures. They can take the reader, the writer, and the characters beyond the known, the conventional, and the possible, yet they are firmly embedded within the world we experience. Their ability to push the boundaries of the possible makes them particularly interesting as a writing experiment, and their relationship to walking is somehow ‘natural’. In walking we create stories.
As Nick Shepherd wrote, “there is an ancient and pleasing connection between the act of walking and the art of storytelling. This connection between walking and storytelling is as old as human culture itself. It constitutes that magical moment when we convert mere utility into something more than itself—when, as it were, we step into the kingdom of signs that makes up all art. Like any good story, a walk has a beginning, a middle, and an end”.
This collection invites authors and readers to embark on a creative journey of storytelling, unfolding the gift of the written word in all its potential. But while journeying and storytelling can be playful, far from being naïve and innocent, these endeavours need to be considered not only in terms of style but also of purpose. Stories can be misleading or unheard, while journeys can change the world, not always for the better. Nevertheless, we believe that there is much to be learned from the art of storytelling as it opens the door to distinct modes of engaging with the materiality of the world, but also with the materiality of the language. As Maurice Blanchot once wrote, “happily, language is a thing, it is a written thing, a bit of bark, a sliver of rock, a fragment of clay in which the reality of the earth continues to exist”.