Words. Stories.
Life.

Cape Alitak, Kodiak Island, Alaska
Video: Rosette Royale

Words can work magic. And sometimes that magic takes different forms.

In high school, I thought it was silly that people took a typing class. Since then, I’ve been doing my best to make up for that idea. Now I love to type. Here’s the proof.

Rosette Royale

When I was 5, I saw the trailer for “Blacula,” a film about a Black vampire. It petrified me. That’s when I felt the power of marrying words and images. I gave it a try.

Rosette Royale

I’ve been a talker since childhood, but what most people probably couldn’t see was that I was also a listener. I loved to hear people speak. I loved it so much, I’ve recorded a few.

Stories can take you anywhere.
The story projects I’ve pursued have taken me many places—and those projects have given me a lot.

Bryant Carlin

The Olympic temperate rain forest contains four rainforest valleys. In 2015 and 2016, I explored each of them with an experienced guide. It gave me the nerve to go alone.

As the story-gathering consultant for the AMP, my job was listen to people tell their personal stories about HIV/AIDS. I wondered if they’d talk to me. They did.

Joel Turner

In October 2017, I read a police blotter by the Seattle Police Department that described an incident on the Aurora Bridge. Finding out what led a young man there took months.

You never know where the search for a story will lead. One day, an inner voice said, “Stop here.” I spoke to the motel manager. That conversation began an incredible journey.

I scoured the want ads for a job (this was in 2004). I saw Real Change was hiring a staff reporter. Resumes were due in two days. I got an interview—and worked there for a decade.

Rosette Royale

One day, I heard about a local professor who was going to Kodiak Island to build a replica of an ancient Indigenous boat. I went to ask him if I could go. He said yes.