Explanation of the Award Selections
The winners and honors for each year's Storytelling World Awards are showcased on this site. The resource title, author (performer), and publisher are provided-along with a short description and a web address for potential buyers.
Award Rationale. Thousands of new and adapted stories are published each year. Storytellers (and story seekers) are looking for "just the right story" for a variety of reasons and occasions. Most professionals just don't have the time to read all of the new publications, so Storytelling World assists in this search through this annual awards program. Our staff publicizes the awards program through this web site, by e-mails to publishers, and through limited mailings. Anyone (individuals or publishers) may nominate resources to be considered for these awards. A staff of professionals proceed through the evaluation/selection process that culminates the following January.
Judges and Decisions. Storytelling professionals spend a vast amount of time in the careful study of each year's nominated materials-to arrive at the selection of several winners and honors. This is no simple task. If several mathematicians attempting to solve an identical problem, all who are correct in their calculations might arrive at the same answer--but not so in storytelling. Had you been a judge for any year's resources, your final list might have varied greatly from those presented on these award lists. Our judges do not all agree--nor should they. Each year's selections reflect the compiled opinions of all of our evaluators, and their names will remain anonymous; however, if a question about the judging should arise, feel free to contact the Storytelling World Awards Director, Dr. Flora Joy.
The Selections. Each year's final selections are quite varied--with a range of original, adapted, short, long, serious, humorous, culture-specific, religious, historical, traditional, literary, poetic, scary, and unusual choices. Some are intended for beginning tellers, while others may challenge the esteemed professionals. All were published in resources copyrighted during the previous five years, although some selections may have additionally appeared in earlier works. Modifications of the classics (public domain and traditional stories) allow us to appreciate these authors' adaptations, and they inspire us in designing our own retellings of favorite story motifs. Most printed stories will need some recrafting to fit a teller's individual style. All awarded personal stories are intended to be viewed only as models for those preparing their own personal material. (Storytelling World strongly recommends that tellers not perform the personal tales of others.)
Permissions. Permission to use these award stories or resources for professional/financial gain will need to be obtained through the author/publisher/teller. Classroom teachers and librarians may enjoy copyright's fair-use allowances. In all cases, courtesy and professionalism dictate giving credit to the original resource.
Future Nominations for Storytelling World Awards. If a storytelling resource is not nominated, then it cannot be considered for these awards. (We frequently hear about a "great" storytelling book or recording that wasn't on our awards list; yet, when we examine our records, we learn that the resource in question had not been nominated.) We strongly encourage everyone to alert the authors/tellers/publishers of your favorite storytelling resources to participate in this awards program! This is our way to publicize new materials to storytellers.