On Simms' Our Secret TerritoryOur Secret Territory: The Essence of Storytelling, by Laura Simms. Boulder, CO: Sentient Publications, 2011. 186 pp. ISBN 978-1-59181-172-5.In the years that I have taught storytelling studies to undergraduates, I have more than once bemoaned the dearth of appropriate texts for my introductory course. Those available tend to fall into two general categories: (1) the celebrated practi- tioner(s)' celebration of the art form, and (2) how-to manuals. While these books are generally well written and informative-and quite useful for professionals, as reference or as a secondary selection-I have found them inadequate for my purposes, whether because they are written in prose that is difficult for students to follow, or because they contain too many sections that are irrelevant to this particular class, or because they are overly advanced for beginners, or because they focus so much (if so well) on the craft of storytelling that they neglect its essence.This state of affairs should come as no surprise in a new field, particularly one that is interdisciplinary-and deeply rooted in the oral tradition. A good intro- ductory storytelling book should touch the primal, primeval heart of storytelling while remaining twenty-first-century relevant. It must be both personal enough to captivate and universal enough to be practical. It must evoke the storyteller's palette of language and emotion yet not overthink or oversell what is still, at its essence, a folk art. Finally, it should connect the nebulous idea of the empow- erment of storytelling to real-life scenarios in which students might envision themselves employing that power.Enter Laura Simms. Her latest addition to the storyteller's bookshelf is not necessarily aimed at college students, but it nonetheless makes as sublime a contribution to the syllabus as it does to the library. The book is, its author tells us, neither about method nor analysis but serves, rather, as a map that points outward toward a vigorous realignment of our true nature with insight and psychological renewal (xv).As such, the book is about a lot more than storytelling. Yet that same capa- ciousness suggests that so, in fact, is storytelling. With reflections on a life well spent teaching and practicing storytelling, Our Secret Territory: The Essence of Storytelling, a collection of reprinted and new essays by the veteran performer/ humanitarian/coach/writer, falls into the celebrated/celebration category men- tioned above, with a twist. Simms weaves four decades of insight and experience- from Brooklyn to Bucharest by way of Buddhism-into a fully realized argument for the preservation and perpetuation of oral narrative performance, in all its guises. (That phrase appeared, incidentally, in the name of the first professional storytelling association in the United States, with which Simms has been closely identified since its inception.)To say Laura Simms gets storytelling is to suggest that Ben Franklin got the U.S. Constitution. It is evident from these pages that Our Secret Territory is the work of a cofounder of the current storytelling revival both in the United States and abroad. Along with Connie Regan-Blake, Barbara Freeman, and others, Simms helped shape not only the prestigious National Storytelling Festival but also the very job description of a full-time storyteller: a public intellectual who weaves, through performance, writing and teaching, art and wisdom as ancient as the Bhagavad Gita and as current as tomorrow's blog post.I would not ordinarily describe, much less judge, a book by its cover. The evocative graphic by Susan Leopold, however, exhorts the reader to pay close attention to what we might not otherwise be inclined to see, thus making it a fitting portal to the book. A sumptuous red theater curtain in the shape of a heart is set on a stage reminiscent of an ancient amulet. Behind the curtain is a field and suggestion of mountains beyond. …