Our mission
Great literature belongs to everyone.
People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos opens doors to literature for new audiences. Through oral readings and rigorous, welcoming discussions of enduring short stories, participants discover fresh understandings of themselves, of others, and of the world.
Literature opens the door
A story read aloud. A discussion shaped by every voice.
Our trademarked methodology makes serious literature accessible, engaging, and deeply human—without lectures, tests, or prerequisites.
Read
A professionally trained coordinator reads a carefully selected short story aloud.
Discuss
The story becomes the catalyst for a rigorous, welcoming guided discussion.
Connect
Participants bring their own insight and experience, finding new perspectives and common ground.
A program without walls
We go where participants are.
Our trained coordinators bring literature and guided discussion into community settings where access to the humanities may be limited. Programs are offered in English and Spanish and are free to participants.
We work with older adults, new immigrants, people in recovery, justice-involved individuals, people experiencing housing insecurity, adults with disabilities, library patrons, students, and others whose perspectives deserve to be welcomed into the literary circle.
Explore our programs
Founder
Our founder
Sarah Hirschman believed literature should be accessible to all.
Born in Lithuania into a Russian Jewish family and educated in France and the United States, Sarah was a reader fluent in several languages. She was fascinated by how people from different cultural backgrounds received and interpreted literature.
After five years in Colombia working with urban community groups and development projects, she founded Gente y Cuentos in Spanish in Massachusetts in 1972. Her methodology would go on to connect more than 40,000 lives to literature.
“It catches your emotions, makes you think, takes you on a journey. In this case, the journey is together with other people.”
— Sarah Hirschman
Book-purchase proceeds do not directly benefit People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos or its programs.
Our history
More than five decades of opening doors
The language, locations, and reach have grown. The heart of the work remains unchanged: an enduring short story, read aloud, followed by a discussion in which every participant's insight is taken seriously.
1972
Gente y Cuentos begins
Sarah Hirschman establishes the Spanish-language program in Massachusetts. During the following decade, it expands to Florida, Texas, New York, and Puerto Rico.
1986–1993
People & Stories takes root
The English-language program begins in New Jersey in 1986, and People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos becomes a nonprofit corporation in 1993.
2005
Crossing Borders with Literature
A new model brings participants together across municipal, socioeconomic, racial, and cultural lines.
2010
Story Talk / Cuentos y Plática
Created with the National Endowment for the Humanities, this youth initiative reaches young adults in communities across the country.
2015
Reading Deeply in Community
Leyendo a Fondo, en Comunidad works nationally with librarians to bring the program to new and underserved audiences.
Today
The circle continues to widen
Programs reach youth, adults, and older adults in correctional facilities, libraries, schools, senior communities, recovery programs, housing organizations, and other community settings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and beyond.
Help widen the circle
Open the door to literature for someone new.
Your support brings complete literature programs to partner sites and participants at no cost to them.
