LObservateur LAPLACE Some of the librarys littlest patrons got a real treat this week when Johnette Downing came to St. John the Baptist Parishs public libraries to share her child-friendly brand of music and storytelling.

It's a Monday night, and five poets gather for a top-secret meeting in a Lowertown loft.

ASHEVILLE The kid-friendly Stories on Asheville's Front Porch series continues Saturday mornings throughout August, heading for its Sept. 4 finale.

FICTION Take an Irish family so dysfunctional it makes the Kennedys look like the Waltons. Throw in the cold-case disappearance of a 19-year-old girl. Add the remarkable storytelling talents of a gifted writer, and you have "Faithful Place," Tana French's third book featuring the Dublin Murder Squad. This time out, ...

Each day over at SMITH Magazine, the storytelling community I started in 2006, members unleash a frenzy of self-expression in the form of Six-Word Memoirs....