Approximately 40 people filled Allison’s Goods in downtown Fullerton on Saturday afternoon, September 12, 2026, for the launch of Return to Storytelling: An Inverted Ethnography, the latest book by local author and Cal State Fullerton anthropology professor Karen Stocker.

The 2 pm event left the shop at 815 North Harbor Boulevard standing-room only. Stocker read briefly from the book, and a limited number of copies were available for purchase — though organizers had made clear in advance that no one was expected to buy anything. The gathering continued afterward at Stocker’s home and studio, where attendees carried the conversation well past the reading.

Return to Storytelling draws on the narratives of healers, community members, storytellers, witches, and tricksters from a nameless Central American Indigenous community. Described as a lyrical ethnography, the book sets itself against conventional historical accounts, examining how stories both record events and shape the frameworks people use to interpret ordinary days and extraordinary ones alike. Stocker’s prose deliberately pits academic register against oral tradition, with echoes of the magical realism of Latin American literature—a choice that keeps the book within reach of readers outside the discipline.

“By prioritizing community collective memory over colonial narratives, the book promotes a rethinking of ethnographic practices,” Stocker said. “It encourages readers to navigate the ambiguities between scholarly discourse and storytelling, and to reflect on the impact of narrative in both political and ethical dimensions of life.”

The turnout suggested the afternoon did what it set out to do. Less a sales pitch than a community gathering, the event rested on the premise at the heart of the book: storytelling is a way of understanding culture and history — and it works best in a room full of people.