9In this special issue, contributors argue that narrative studies can challenge the late capitalist storytelling industry to direct instrumental storytelling toward more ethically and rhetorically sustainable directions. Given this, the authors suggest, narrative studies should take a more prominent role in contemporary discourses of the storytelling boom. Seeking to redefine the role of narrative theorists and analysts in that boom, the authors address its critically different aspects while also showing how narrative studies can be made compelling, engaging, and societally relevant.