Korb has a master's degree in English literature and creative writing and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In the following essay, Korb discusses the development of the storyteller in Telling Tales.

Cruz's Telling Tales is a collection of eleven very brief monologues, all of which can be read or performed as stand-alone pieces. While the monologues intrinsically retain their individual dramatic integrity, they also build upon and support each other. Connected as they are through narrators, characters, themes, and chronology, the pieces, when looked upon as a unit, chronicle a life grown up.

Cruz has said in interviews that she uses her writing to explore issues and events from her own life, as well as the feelings and emotions they raised. For example, when Cruz was eight, her best friend was raped and murdered. The murderer then threw the victim's body off the...