Loren Niemi is a author/poet and professional storyteller whose life work has been creating, collecting, performing, teaching, and writing about what it means to be human. His collection of non-traditional “ghost” stories, What Haunts Us, won the 2020 Midwest Book Award for Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy/Paranormal fiction. His most recent book, A Breviary for the Lost, is a poetic memoir of his seven years in a Catholic religious order in a time of political, cultural, and spiritual disruption. His books, The New Book of Plots and Point of View and the Emotional Arc of Stories, explore the crafting of oral and written narratives. Niemi is also a recipient of a National Storytelling Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award.