The Creators of Imaginative Storm

Allegra Huston and James Navé

What makes our collaboration so powerful?

We come from opposite ends of the writing spectrum: Allegra from the academic side: a renowned editor in publishing and author of a bestselling memoir, a novel, screenplays, and magazine articles; Navé from the grassroots side: slam poetry, old-time storytelling, and Artist’s Way creativity coaching.

We combined our decades of experience to develop a method that has made thousands of people better writers.

Whether you’re writing fiction, memoir, poetry, or something just for yourself; whether you’re seasoned or just starting out, the Imaginative Storm method meets you where you are and catapults you forward.

“I write because I am endlessly fascinated by what people do, why we do it, and how we make sense of the world.”

Bestselling author Allegra Huston, co-founder of Imaginative Storm and co-author of Write What You Don't Know

Allegra is the author of Write What You Don’t Know (with James Navé), 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).

Allegra contributed to the anthology One Last Lunch: A Final Meal with Those Who Meant So Much to Us, writing an imaginary lunch with her mother who died when she was four. You can listen to her read it here.

Allegra has written for Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, People, Newsweek, The Times (London), The Oldie, and The Independent on Sunday. She wrote and produced the award-winning short film Good Luck, Mr. Gorski.

Allegra holds a Double First in English from Oxford University, and was Editorial Director of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, one of the most respected UK publishers. She has taught writing workshops for the University of Oklahoma, the National University of Ireland, Galway, the Taos Writers Conference, and the UK’s prestigious Arvon Foundation, and has taught a guest seminar at the nonfiction department of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

VISIT ALLEGRA'S WEBSITE

Favorite movies:

Harold and Maude - I love this movie so much, I must have seen it 50 times. Then: The Year of Living Dangerously, Night of the Hunter, The Matrix, Man on Wire - and, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Favorite books I edited:

Through a Window by Jane Goodall. I spent so much time choosing photos with Jane that I ended up recognizing individual chimps! My favorite recent job is The Intermediaries by Brandi Schillace.

Favorite books I didn’t edit:

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville; The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko; Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro; Gone by Min Kym; Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn.

Most amazing theatre experience:

King Lear at the Old Vic, London. In Act 4 a messenger enters and says something like, “My lords, the King of France is winning!” and I actually thought, “Oh! It’s going to be okay this time!”

“My American Express card says ‘‘poet,” but whether it’s mine or anyone else’s, I’m passionately in love with poetry.”

Poet and creativity coach James Nave, co-founder of Imaginative Storm and co-author of Write What You Don't Know

Navé is the author of Write What You Don’t Know (with Allegra Huston), 100 Days Poems After Cancer, and How to Read for an Audience (with Allegra Huston).

For six years, Navé worked with Julia Cameron, bestselling author of The Artist’s Way, developing and teaching Artist’s Way Creativity Camps across the US.

Navé found his voice in the slam poetry scene, and scored a perfect 30 at the Green Mill, Chicago. As founder of Poetry Alive!, which brought performance poetry to over 3 million schoolchildren across the U.S., he memorized over 600 poems.

Navé holds an MFA from Vermont College, and has taught writing workshops at the University of Oklahoma, the National University of Ireland, Galway, and Duke University. He has performed shows and taught writing and creativity worldwide, from Nouakchott, Mauritania, to Bangkok, Paris, and Lima.

Navé hosts a weekly podcast, “Provocative Conversations,” which airs on WPVMFM-Asheville, KCEI Taos, and Soundcloud. 

VISIT NAVE'S WEBSITE

Fun movie experience:

Recognizing Beryl Markham's book West with the Night on Meg Ryan's bedside table in Sleepless In Seattle.

Poetry to live by:

"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.

Greatest accomplishment:

Having lifelong friends who will always pick up the phone when I call.