Meet the Creators of the Imaginative Storm Writing Method
The Imaginative Storm writing method was developed by James Navé and Allegra Huston, who came together from different ends of the literary spectrum. Navé, a championship-winning slam poet, started teaching workshops in collaboration with Julia Cameron, bestselling author of The Artist’s Way. Allegra came from the academic side: having gained a First in English from Oxford University, she became Editorial Director of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, one of the UK’s most respected literary publishing houses.
We started teaching writing workshops together in 2003. Over the decades, we combined and refined our two approaches: bringing imaginative freedom to the rational mindset, and structure to free-ranging creativity. This collaboration is what makes our work unique.
Experience its power for yourself with our book Write What You Don’t Know: 10 Steps to Writing with Confidence, Energy, and Flow, or online self-paced video course Write What You Don’t Know: Imaginative Storm Writer Training.
Listen to us talk about the Imaginative Storm:
The Midlife Momentum Podcast with Debbie Harbec, April 2024
Soberful podcast with Veronica Valli, October 2023
The Business Psychic podcast with Amber Annette, September 2023
Joan of Art podcast with Joan Juliet Buck, September 2023
Emerging Form podcast with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, August 2023
Read about our workshops and our method:
“A Writer’s Workshop to Help Writers Out of Their Rut,” Taos News, November 9, 2023
Allegra Huston
Author, editor, publisher
… and amateur interior decorator, very sporadic gardener, even more sporadic piano player, mother of a cat whisperer, appreciator of anyone who does anything well, aficionado of Premier League football (Liverpool, if you’re wondering), enthusiastic dilettante.
Author of Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, the novel A Stolen Summer, and, for writers, How to Edit and Be Edited and How to Read for an Audience (with James Navé). And the award-winning short film Good Luck, Mr. Gorski.
“I write because I am endlessly fascinated by what people do, why we do it, and how we make sense of the world.”
Favorite book that I edited:
Through a Window by Jane Goodall. (I was Editorial Director of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, at the time.) How lucky was I to work with her! Even though I have a really bad memory for faces, I spent so much time with Jane going through photos that I ended up being able to recognize individual chimps. Result: 48pp of photos, including color—four times as much as was planned!
Favorite books that I didn’t edit:
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville; Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë; The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko; Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Favorite movies:
Harold and Maude, The Year of Living Dangerously, Night of the Hunter, The Matrix, Man on Wire - and, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Favorite things I’ve written:
The short film Good Luck, Mr. Gorski, which I love tenderly. An imaginary lunch with my mother, who died when I was four, written for the anthology One Last Lunch. (You can listen to me read it here.) And my protest villanelle, “How to Kill a Poem Dead.”
Most amazing theatre experience:
King Lear at the Old Vic, with Eric Porter as Lear. In Act 4 a messenger comes on and says something like, “My lords, the King of France is winning!” and I actually thought, “Oh my god, it’s going to be okay this time!”
James Navé
Poet, storyteller, teacher, creativity coach
. . . and with over 600 memorized poems and a background in poetic storytelling, I have performed shows and taught writing, creativity, and public speaking worldwide, including locations such as Nouakchott, Mauritania, Galway, Ireland, Bangkok, Thailand, Paris, France, Lima, Peru, and various places around the U.S.
Author of 100 Days Poems After Cancer, Write What You Don't Know (with Allegra Huston), and How to Read for an Audience (with Allegra Huston). I host a weekly podcast, Twice 5 Miles Radio, on WPVMFM-Asheville and Soundcloud.
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Poetic highlight:
I've memorized over 600 poems. Ask me how many I've forgotten.
Most influential lines of poetry:
"I am a part of all that I have met; / Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough / Gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades / For ever and forever when I move." Tennyson, “Ulysses”
Poetry pays:
A frazzled ticket agent once upgraded me to first-class from San Francisco to London because I recited a love poem to her: “Strawberries” by Edwin Morgan.
Sports highlight:
Playing basketball with a platoon of off-duty Marines stationed at the American Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania; they wore me out in 10 minutes. I was in Nouakchott to teach poetry at the embassy school.
Mistaken identity:
Once, on a windy October night, when I was walking down 21st Street in New York, three teenagers thought I was Sylvester Stallone. They chased me down the sidewalk, yelling, "We'll get you, Rocky, we will get you!" I escaped.
Fun movie experience:
Recognizing Beryl Markham's book West with the Night on Meg Ryan's bedside table in Sleepless In Seattle.
Greatest accomplishment:
Having lifelong friends who will always pick up the phone when I call.