Arcade Publishing 1989 Storyteller is a collection of works, including photographs, poetry, and short stories by Leslie Marmon Silko.

"[2] Silko primarily focuses on the Laguna Pueblo in Storyteller; however, she also draws influence from Inuit culture, which she experienced when she resided in Alaska's Rosewater Foundation-on-Ketchikan Creek while writing Ceremony.

[5][6] In one attempt he tried to edit the scene in which a character, Betonie, explains "it was Indian witchery that made white people in the first place," a story which is also told and elaborated upon in Storyteller.

In N. Scott Momoday's review of Storyteller in 1981, he calls it "a rich, many-faceted book [consisting] of short stories, anecdotes, folktales, poems, historical and autobiographical notes, and photographs.

"[12] The poems in Storyteller make up the bulk of the collection, greatly outnumbering the amount of short stories and photographs they accompany.

Silko has commented on her poetic structure, saying, “I gave examples of what I heard as best as I could remember, and how I developed these elements into prose, into fiction, and into poetry, moving from what was basically an oral tradition into a written tradition.”[13] Silko gives readers further insight into her writing process in the untitled poem that begins “This is the way Aunt Susie told the story.” She says, “I write when I still hear / her voice as she tells the story.”[2]

[15] In The Old Lady Trill, the Victory Yell: The Power of Women in Native American Literature, Patrice Hollrah noted, "Silko prefers promoting a political agenda through her stories rather than any other format...."[16] In Storyteller Silko addresses social issues resulting from colonialism and colliding cultures, which can be seen in some of the works in the collection such as "Tony’s Story," which in part deals with racial discrimination against American Indian men.

Paul Lorenz explains in The Other Side of Leslie Marmon Silko's "Storyteller," "For the story, the location of events in time is essentially meaningless.

"[4] Additionally, Bernard Hirsh notes that “The experience in living the reality revealed in her grandfather’s stories has shown her the oneness of past and present, of historical and mythic time, and of the stories, and the people.”[12] Even though Silko is inspired by the oral tradition and storytelling, she does not consider herself a traditional storyteller.

[18] She noted in an interview with Kim Barnes, "I write them down because I like seeing how I can translate this sort of feeling or flavor or sense of a story that's told and heard on to the page.

[21] When it was reissued in 1989 through Arcade Publishing, Storyteller made the "Fiction Best Sellers" list for Southern California in the LA Times.