Ken Wells, author of upcoming Yale Press release The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous: Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina, shares his thoughts on storytelling in the new issue of Mayborn magazine. In the article, Wells reflects on his experiences growing up in a family of big-talking characters and imparts the colorful lore that he inherited, which later influenced his unique journalistic eye.

In The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous, Wells turns this eye to the backwater stories of the Robin family, who for generations have built a life rooted in the deep bayous of New Orleans. Since Hurricane Katrina introduced chaos to their formerly quiet lives, for two years Wells tracked the influence of the storm on the members of this spirited family.
The author delivers his account with a reporter’s precision, a storyteller’s sense of adventure, and a neighbor’s affection.

Read the Mayborn article here to discover how this storyteller was born and made.