List of regional storytellers subject to change.

Ron Adams
..., a former teacher of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Norse mythologies, taught the course through storytelling. Now he specializes in telling myths, ghost stories, and literary favorites for adults and 5th- to 12th-graders. In storytelling, his favorite words are the "the words are cousins to the deeds." He has taught a course in storytelling at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and has been a workshop leader. He was honored as an outstanding storyteller at the 1998 Illinois Storytelling Festival.

Kenya Ajanaku
... tells stories that trace the early folklore of Africans who, when brought to America to build and work the fields, shared stories as an evening pastime. The stories also trace moral and ethical behavior of people in Africa, Europe, and America and are often told accompanied by a drum. Kenya was a featured teller at the 2000 St. Louis Storytelling Festival.

Mike Anderson
... is one of the most versatile folk entertainers in the Midwest, and is well-known to traditional music fans in central Illinois. Mike was the host of a national award-winning children's TV show, created and ran the New Salem Storytelling Festival and the Clayville Music and Storytelling Festival, and has been recognized as an outstanding educator in Illinois as a third-grade teacher. For more on Mike Anderson, visit his Web site at www.dulcimerguy.com.

Listen to Mike Anderson play "Simple Gifts/The Water Is Wide" on the mountain dulcimer, from his CD Solo; Not Alone (Time: 5:25).

Diann Joy Bank
... is recognized as a master storyteller and educator who loves telling multicultural folktales and tales of her Jewish heritage. Her high-energy performances come from her recipe of rhythm, song, movement, and, most importantly, her audience's participation in her stories. Diann nurtures your soul with her stories and believes that everyone can be a storyteller. Diann was a featured storyteller at the 1995 St. Louis Storytelling Festival and a regional teller in 2002.

Listen to Diann Joy Bank tell "Rest and Catch Your Breath Day" from her CD The Joy of Jewish Tales.

Mary Lu Bretsch
... is a former school librarian whose quiet presence evolves into energetic and enthusiastic performances at schools, community events, and the St. Louis Storytelling Festival. After telling fairy tales, literary tales, and multicultural stories for more than 25 years, Mary Lu is now beginning to tell tales to a second generation, making her a "wise old storyteller."

Larry G. Brown
..., assistant professor of Human Geography at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has been a storyteller for more than 20 years and is a cofounder of the Mid-Missouri Organization for Storytelling (MOST) centered in Columbia, Mo. Larry tells to all ages and is known for his original Jack Tales and ghost stories, as well as personal, Christmas, and medieval stories.

Patty Carleton
... is a former preschool teacher turned librarian, who became a storyteller by default --it's what people expect of librarians. She has served on the Newbery and Coretta Scott King Award committees. Currently, she is director of Youth Services for St. Louis Public Library and author of a monthly column for Savvy Family magazine.

Marion Berndt Cohen
... is both teacher and storyteller. She tells stories to young children during the week and to older adults on Saturdays. Many of Marion's stories include audience participation.

Jeanne B. Crews
... is a retired school teacher after 42 years who tells stories through her volunteer work in area schools to kindergarten through sixth-grade classes. She has also told at area school activities, family functions, the Missouri Botanical Garden, county parks, and at the Missouri Storytelling (MO-TELL) conference in St. Charles, as well as at the Tsunami Benefit at Our Lady of the Snows.

Ella Eakins
... tells her stories in American Sign Language with expressive hands, body, and face. She has been a regional teller at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival since 1998, this year is her sixth year as chairperson of the Festival's Deaf Program, and in 2005 she was a featured teller.

Mary Garrett
... shares stories with her students at Francis Howell North High School and with the community at storytelling events, day care centers, elementary schools, and retirement communities. Mary credits her father, the first storyteller in her life, with instilling in her the love of make-believe, and she believes in the power of story to make this world a better place. After experiencing Mary's stories, you can't help but take some of that feeling with you.

Jim Gerst
... is a national park ranger and a storyteller who loves to hear and pass on a good story.

Catherine Gregory
..., the "Butterfly Story" lady, loves to tell folktales, fairy tales, and religious and holiday stories to children and the young at heart. She believes stories free the spirit and teach the meaning of life.

Fran Grindler-Anstett
... has been a counselor in an elementary school, where she loved sharing stories with children. Having traveled east and west, she marvels at the stories repeated in many cultures. Her stories have touched her heart so she could share them with you.

Heather Harlan
... of Jacksonville, Ill., has been performing through stories and songs to audiences of all ages for more than 20 years. Whether spinning an Irish tale, an African folk fable, or an original story, she finds a common chord within listeners and plays that chord with resounding energy, insight, and plain old fun. Heather has also completed two recording projects.

Annette Harrison
... has been a multi-talented storyteller, performer, author, and educator for 28 years. She travels throughout the United States performing, teaching, and giving keynote addresses. Annette has created three books on storytelling, one of which is awaiting publishing, and she hosted Gator Tales, a weekly TV program promoting literacy, personal responsibility, and self-esteem through storytelling. She was a featured storyteller at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival in 1988 and 1999. For more on Annette Harrison, visit her Web site at www.annetteharrison.com.

Sue Hinkel
... is a storytelling artist, painting pictures with her words. She is a member of the St. Louis Storytelling Festival planning committee and Executive Director of Missouri Storytelling (MO-TELL). She tells at festivals, workshops, schools, and organizations. Sue has been telling at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival for 27 years and was a featured teller in 1991 and 1999.

Phyllis Hostmeyer
... would use the craft of storytelling, as a child, to wiggle her wy out of trouble. As an adult, she uses the craft to entertin. She turns fairy tales into rollicking raps and humorous ballads as rhymes roll from her tongue. But her favorite stories grow from the rich soil of the Midwest where she has lived all her life. Parents, siblings, neighbors, friends, her husband, her children, they are all planted in her stories to a create a harvest of joy, love and humor.

Mary Jo Huff
... gives high-energy performances using puppets and a lively mix of rhythm and rhyme. She is the author of Storytelling with Puppets, Props, and Playful Tales, as well as a professional storyteller, puppeteer, and early childhood educator with 25 years of experience to share. She is known for her high-energy performances and lively mix of rhythm and rhyme, with storytime.

Joann King
... brings stories and historical facts to life, motivating and stimulating the imagination of young people and adults. Her repertoire reflects her interest in African-American experiences and art forms, and her stories offer messages of positive thinking, decision making, and humor. She has traveled throughout St. Louis City and County telling stories in schools and libraries.

Marilyn Kinsella
..., "Taleypo," is a full-time teller of tales from around the world. Her style varies with the stories she tells, which include Native American stories, personal experience stories, Brer Rabbit tales, and Midwest folklore. Besides telling at many Illinois and Missouri schools, she tells at libraries, museums, and special events. Marilyn has been telling stories since 1981 thoughout the Midwest and was a featured teller at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival in 1991.

Sue Koppel
... is a professional actress, storyteller, and consulting psychologist who delights audiences from ages 2 to 100 with her interactive and participatory stories from around the world. She amuses and amazes audiences with the variety of voices she employs in her stories.

Linda Kram
... has been learning stories her whole life and has been telling them for over a decade. These days she uses stories as teaching tools in her job as a preschool educator. She recently had a story published in New Harvest, an anthology of St. Louis Jewish authors.

Lucy Lockett
... has now chronologically passed the half-century mark, but is still a kid in an adult suit. She relates well to kids of all ages because she still believes in the impossible. Her humorous twists make even familiar stories new and exciting. With more than 30 years of storytelling experience, she is currently teaching "Literacy through Storytelling" in St. Louis City schools.

Dianne Moran
... is an award-winning storyteller who has worked with children and wildlife for 35 years as a folklorist/naturalist, including 22 years at the St. Louis Zoo. Her programs often include mountain dulcimer and relics as well as live animals, which serve as metaphors for her stories. Dianne performs Chautauqua programs as a Civil War and Lewis and Clark scholar throughout the Midwest. She was a featured storyteller at the 2003 St. Louis Storytelling Festival. For more on Dianne Moran, visit her Web site at www.members.tripod.com/dmoranstoryteller.

Kunama Mtendaji
... is a native St. Louisan who was influenced by the poems, riddles, rhymes, songs, and stories of his parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. He studies and promotes the folklore of his surrounding environments and the source of that folklore, Africa. He presents these rich oral traditions with authentic dress, setting, music, and dance that span from Africa to the Americas. Kunama was a featured teller at the 1993 St. Louis Storytelling Festival.

Bobby Norfolk
... is a master storyteller who travels nationally performing for audiences of all ages. His 24 years of experience in the performing arts includes professional theater and television. "I didn't seek storytelling," Bobby says, "it sought me." His distinctive voice captures attention, and his imaginative stories produce a myriad of visual images that delight listeners. Bobby is like an adventure story that has come to life. He was a featured teller at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival in 1989 and 1999. For more on Bobby Norfolk, visit his Web site at www.bobbynorfolk.com.

Listen to Bobby Norfolk tell "Anansi and Turtle Go to Dinner" from his CD Anansi Time (Time: 6:45).

Sherry Norfolk
... is an acclaimed performer who appears nationally and internationally. Sherry, who has a BA in Elementary Education and a master's in Library Science, teaches as well as performs storytelling. As a children's librarian, she was led to storytelling as an effective means of motivating children to read. As a teacher, she learned the power of storytelling to teach universal values, elevate understanding and acceptance of others, and promote environmental awareness. She is co-author with her husband, Bobby Norfolk, of The Moral of the Story: Folktales for Character Development. Sherry was a featured teller at the 2000 St. Louis Storytelling Festival.

Marcia Ollinger
... is a former primary-grade teacher who began storytelling after attending the St. Louis Storytelling Festival in 1984. She tells at luncheons, schools, churches, retirement centers, and community festivals. Marcia's repertoire includes traditional folktales from around the world, American stories, and holiday stories. She believes that everyone, no matter what age, can enjoy a good story.

Steve Otto
... is a full-time professional storyteller from Kansas City and a touring artist with the Missouri Humanities Council. He began telling stories in 1985 and became a full-time teller in 1994. Steve has worked in television and has acted and directed in more than 30 community theatre productions. Steve tells to all age groups from nursery school to nursing homes. His program for senior citizens teaches them to tell their own personal stories as learning tools for other generations. His programs for children show them the importance of opening the mind to create images to enhance their learning skills. For more on Steve Otto, visit his Web site at www.I-tell.net.

Listen to Steve Otto tell "Wide Mouth Frog" from his CD Wide Mouth Frog (Time: 7:16).

Shaaron Peters
... is a singer/storyteller who blends song and story together as she accompanies herself on the autoharp. With an animated style and the use of audience participation, she creates fun-filled storytelling sessions that are both entertaining and educational for all ages

Marilyn Phillips
... tells the tales and sells the stories in and out of the library where she works. She believes that good stories bring out the good in the readers and listeners.

Gale Rublee Portman
... is an actress turned storyteller. Drawing upon her background in theater and environmental education, Gale infuses her stories with emotional richness and wonder. A professional storyteller since 1992, her telling of myths, fairy tales, nature stories, and original "gale tales" connect listeners to each other and their world. Gale and storyteller partner, Karen Young, have formed Storytellers Side by Side, offering programs through Springboard to Learning and Young Audiences of St. Louis, the Center of Creative Arts (COCA), and independently.

Daniel Romano
... is a storyteller, folklorist, and puppeteer. He tells traditional and modern adaptations of world folk tales, Celtic stories and legends and tales from America's "Old West". As a teaching specialist for the St. Louis City School's Springboard to Learning programs, he is a mentor for 5th grade student storytellers and also writes, produces and acts in puppet shows.

Lynn Rubright
... is author of Mama's Window (grades 2-8) and internationally recognized performer and leader of workshops and seminars on the art and power of storytelling in our personal and professional lives. Lynn is professor emeritus at Webster University, where she teaches Storytelling Across the Curriculum. She is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University's Department of Drama Summer Institute in Evanston, Ill., and at University of Missouri–St. Louis. Designer of Project TELL and cofounder of the award-winning St. Louis' Metro Theater Company, Lynn received a National Storytelling Network Circle of Excellence award for her work using storytelling in education and won an EMMY as coproducer of Oh Freedom After While. Her book Beyond the Beanstalk: Interdisciplinary Learning Through Storytelling is an acclaimed resource for teachers and parents. Lynn is a cofounder of the St. Louis Storytelling Festival and was a featured teller in 1986, 1989, and 1999. For more on Lynn Rubright, visit her Web site at www.lynnrubright.com.

Delores Tapia Santha
... is better known asw "Grandmother Coyote Stoyteller". She tells the stories she heard as a child during the long Michigan winters on the Upper Peninsula after the fall harvest, and before the winter hunt. The legends were told not only for entertainment, but also to teach the children moral lessons of community living.

Kathy Schottel
... has been singing stories with her guitar for years. A member of several storytelling and theatre organizations, Kathy plays guitar, banjo, dulcimer, and other instruments, and loves finding obscure, interesting, humorous songs to sing. Kathy was a featured teller at the 1994 St. Louis Storytelling Festival.

Carole Shelton
... is an educator, storyteller, and writer. She tells a wide variety of stories for children and adults. Included are historical first-person portrayals, original animal stories, folktales, and inspirational stories. Carole continues her professional growth and development as a storyteller through workshops and professional conferences.

Joyce Slater
... of Kansas City, Mo., loves to tell stories to listeners of all ages. Her theatrical background is evident in her animated style. She tells the old stories and applies them to a new world. Joyce is the former director of River and Prairie Storyweavers and was coordinator of the 2000-2003 Storytelling Celebrations.

Perrin Stifel
... is a skilled, professional storyteller known for his entertaining presentations. When he began telling stories, he quickly realized how storytelling helped to foster a valuable relationship between teller and listener. Stories, Perrin feels, can carry us through life and help us to better understand ourselves, others, and the world we live in. Blending just the right mix of warmth, sensitivity, and humor, Perrin evokes the imagination and endears himself to audiences of all ages. Perrin was a featured teller at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival in 1990 and 1999.

Listen to Perrin Stifel tell "The Three Little Pigs Rap" from his CD My Favorite Stories for Children, Teachers, and You (Time: 5:22).

Christopher Sutton
... works as an interpreter and storyteller for the Saint Louis Zoo and as a storyteller and guide for the Missouri state parks. He tells children and adult stories focused on life lessons, nature-based adventures, and twists of fate. Known as the Twist of Fate Tall Tale Turner, Chris has performed throughout the Midwest to audiences of all ages.

Deb Swanegan
... weaves the threads of history, fantasy, work songs, chants, myths, and legends into her magical repertoire of traditional and nontraditional oral folklore. She combines her African-American, Cherokee, Jewish, and Scots-Irish cultural heritage with her natural abilities to bring life to her stories. Deb was a featured teller at the 2002 St. Louis Storytelling Festival.

Sandi Sylver
..., of North Aurora, Ill., is a storyteller, ventriloquist, and guitar-playing songstress who tours nationally. Sandi wears many hats, and wears them well. Her shows are always educational as well as highly interactive and entertaining. Sandi says that watching the reactions to her stories on the faces of the audience is one of the great pleasures of her performance life. Having taught herself ventriloquism by reading a library book, she also conducts ventriloquism workshops and hopes to help inspire a new generation "that can talk for two." For more on Sandi Sylver, visit her Web site at www.storytelling.org/sylver.

Sharon Thompson
..., a former teacher and librarian, enjoys telling stories to both children and adults. Besides folktales and special programs, Sharon has a good ear and loves stories with a dialect. Sharon is the past president of St. Louis Gateway Storytellers.

Blake Travis
... , vocalist and percussionist, presents songs and stories that celebrate human diversity and unity to spark the creative spirit in us all. Blake specializes in African, African-American, Native-American, Asian, and European stories; cultures that have vast treasures. Blake is a high-energy performer who enhances his tales with percussion instruments. He actively involves members of the audience to foster spontaneity as well as a sense of participation, bringing listeners into the story. Blake was a featured teller at the 1998 St. Louis Storytelling Festival. For more on Blake Travis, visit his Web site at www.blaketravis.net.

Csenge Virág
... was born and raised in Hungary and now travels to world, following stories wherever they take her. She started telling stories as a summer camp leader, among dozens of elementary school kids, and now she tells to adults, high schoolers, and little ones with great success. As a student of archaeology, she can take you on a real time-travel across centuries; as a writer and poet, she can share the most beautiful tales with you; as a girl who was raised in a place that Hungarians believe to be Fairyland, she can tell you legends you've never heard before. Sometimes she tells in English, sometimes you can hear her tell or sing in Hungarian. Her world is filled with tales, and from among them you are free to choose.

Tracy Walker
... is the children’s librarian at the Dawson County Public Library in Georgia, where she regularly keeps company with tricky chipmunks and big, bad pigs. A native of Atlanta, Tracy began storytelling by going into Head Start centers in Southern Appalachia. She has been a teller at local and regional festivals in the Southeast, and is particularly fond of stories that reflect the Southern Appalachian region in which she lives.

Jim Two Crows Wallen
… is a national award winner and a freelance oral historian who combines his love of history with a good story to keep you spellbound. He is the fourth of six generations of storytellers, which includes his daughter, Cristi Rose, and three of four grandchildren. Two Crows has been sharing stories for 25 years, averaging more than 300 performances per year. A Missouri native, he has captured audiences on three continents. Two Crows was a featured teller at the 1998 and 2004 St. Louis Storytelling Festivals.

Loretta Washington
... is a professional storyteller, multipurpose workshop presenter, and writer. She uses voices and animations to paint pictures that bring the characters in her delightful tales to life in such a way that you'll feel like you are a part of her story. Loretta has traveled to Europe and several foreign countries and has incorporated some of the customs, lifestyles, and mannerisms of these places into her stories. Her versatile, high-energy style of storytelling is guaranteed to please everyone who listens.

Greg Weiss
... tells stories and presents workshops around the Midwest and beyond. His story sources include world folklore, poetry, his large family, and his overactive imagination. Greg's performance background includes theatre and rock & roll, and in his spare time, he teaches middle school. Greg is president of the Northlands Storytelling Network and received the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award from the Illinois Humanities Council for his efforts.

Linda Whiggam
... currently works for Special School District as a teacher assistant. She has a bachelor's degree in religion and plans to pursue a master's in deaf education.

Angela Williams
... tells African, African-American, animal, Hannibal, biblical, ghost, women's history, and family stories. Her animated, humorous, warm style captivates and mesmerizes audiences of all ages. For more on Angela Williams, visit her Web site at www.ajwstories.com.

Nina Wilson
... graduated from National Technical Institute for the Deaf. She is involved with Deaf Theater and storytelling, and is a member of several storytelling organizations.

Jackie & Glen "Papa" Wright Jr.
... tell stories ranging from multicultural and animal tales to fables and inspirational stories. Jackie tells high-energy folktales while "Papa" adds dynamic sound effects and music. And their listeners get to participate in both the percussion and the stories.

LaRita Wright
..., "Mrs. W," will delight you with fanciful tales of old and new. Her stories will perk up your imagination and make you say, "Ahh!"

Karen Young
... believes her storytelling appeals tot the "young at heart and ancient in spirit". Her vivid character portrayals from history and folklore, as well as stories told in the voices from many lands and times, entertain and educate all audiences anywhere people are willing to sit a' spell and hear a story well told. A professional storyteller since 1992, Karen has been featured at storytelling events throughout the Midwest and i s a Learning/Youth Audiences of St. Louis and the Center of Contemporary Art (COCA).

Click here for list of Featured Storytellers at the 2007 St. Louis Storytelling Festival