Storyteller Directory
Storytellers offer many services including performances, workshops, and presentation coaching. Below are storytellers who have chosen to advertise their talents here. We hope you will consider them the next time you are looking for a storyteller. We recommend that references be checked before committing to a contract with any performer. Fees may vary widely. Storytellers listed from further distances should be considered, as storytellers frequently travel for work. Storytellers, to purchase/submit a listing, click here.
Karin Amano
Charleston, West Virginia
Originally from Japan, Karin Amano was trained in Japanese traditional song, dance, and theater. In 1991, she moved to NYC to study Educational Theater at NYU and performed in off-off Broadway productions. She was a full-time storyteller and actor at Walt Disney World for 11 years, where she still performs annually at Epcot’s Japan Pavilion for International Festival of the Holidays. She has been telling Japanese folktales in number of settings including various cultural festivals, schools, and libraries all over the U.S. She is board member of the National Storytelling Network’s Special Interest Group YES! (Youth, Educators, Storytellers).
Mike Breeze
Morehead, KY
mbreeze29@yahoo.com
Award-winning actor and storyteller, Mike Breeze has entertained audiences with tales that make us laugh and cry and experience every emotion for more than 30 years. He holds degrees in Speech/Theater & Radio/Television and a master's in Communications from Morehead State University.
Mike has directed and acted in over 100 theatrical productions, written full-length plays, created & produced television shows, and he tells a freshly improvised story to his kids every single night. His favorite story is A Christmas Carol, which he has performed across the U.S. He lives in Morehead, Kentucky, offering a wide repertoire of stories, characters, and voices that both delight and enlighten listeners of all ages.
Ed Bryson
205 Hillbrook Dr., Nicholasville, KY 40356
859-489-9417
edbryson@me.com
freshwindmedia.com/Cast_A_Story.html
C. Edwin Bryson grew up in Brevard, North Carolina from where his family made frequent trips to the Bryson home place on the banks of the Tuckaseegee River that flows through Cullowhee and Bryson City. So nurtured was he by a rich spiritual heritage, he grew up to become an ordained minister. He lives now with his family near Lexington, Kentucky where he is an adjunct professor, writes, and tells stories. He is a member of the Kentucky Storytelling Association.
Thomas Freese
PO Box 99218, Louisville, KY 40269
502-439-7720
info@thomaslfreese.com
www.ThomasLFreese.com
Thomas Freese is a wonderful storyteller — author of nine books of ghost stories including Shaker Ghost Stories, Fog Swirler, Strange and Wonderful Things, Ghosts, Spirits and Angels, and Haunted Battlefields of the South. He entertains with animated voice and movement, performing for children and adults. He has performed from Ashland to Argentina. Thomas plays guitar, harmonica and other instruments, creating songs and telling a variety of story programs in English or Spanish-Pourquois tales, origami stories, silly stories and songs, winter tales, ghosts, desert southwest, fairy tales and folk stories. Pick any of his 20 educational and entertaining story programs!
W.I. "Bill" Hairston
P.O. Box 4466, Charleston, WV 25364
304-546-7786
Among his many endeavors is his work as the Entertainment/Music Coordinator at the Stonewall Jackson Jubilee for 35 years. His stories and songs embody the rich Appalachian culture that he was exposed to as a child along the Coal River in West Virginia. He has been the moderator of the West Virginia Liar’s Contest for several years. Within his interpretations, he frequently weaves the contributions of African Americans to Appalachian history and culture. He has performed in schools, libraries and other venues throughout the region. Bill developed the elementary school program, “We Are One.”
Mary hamilton
1308 Lago Drive, Frankfort, KY 40601-4632
502-223-4523
marystory@earthlink.net
www.maryhamilton.info
Mary grew up on a Kentucky farm where "telling stories" was considered sinful, but conversations that flowed from one story to another were how everyone talked. Audiences from Florida to Alaska– students in schools, families in libraries, adults in theaters– have enjoyed her "just talking" storytelling style. Her professional colleagues in the National Storytelling Network presented her with a Circle of Excellence ORACLE award. Kentucky's school librarians honored her work with a Jesse Stuart Media Award. University Press of Kentucky published Kentucky Folktales, her award-winning book. See videos of her storytelling on her website. She'd love to tell for you!
Mary Jo Huff
4333 Sandra Kay Lane, Newburgh, IN 47630
812-853-3024 800-213-0527
maryjo@storytellin.com
www.storytellin.com
Mary Jo Huff is an Early Childhood consultant, published author, storyteller and recording artist who is recognized nationally for her wit, humor, and storytelling talents. "Storytelling with Puppets, Props, and Playful Tales" received the coveted Pegasus award from the National Youth Storytelling Network and a Parent's Choice Award.
Ray mendenhall
1125 Lexington Rd. Apt 3003, Wilmore, KY 4039
859-940-1735
rwmend@gmail.com
jollymanstories.vistaprintdigital.com
Ray Mendenhall comes from a family of storytellers. Humorous stories and family anecdotes filled his childhood and youth. For 20 years now, Ray has been telling professionally in venues across North and South Carolina and Kentucky. Following the "jolly man" tradition, he mixes amazing songs and whimsical stories into a celebration of the storytelling art. His infectious humor and easy style has engaged audiences in Festivals, schools, libraries, conferences, civic clubs and State Fairs. He has won medals for musical performance in the NC Senior Silver Arts Competition, several storytelling contests and the Bold-faced Liars Showdown in Laurinburg, NC.
Octavia Sexton
874 Big Cave Road, Orlando, KY 40460-9700
606-256-9796
606-308-4203
octavia53@windstream.net
www.octaviasexton.com
A native of eastern Kentucky, Octavia grew up in a rich tradition of storytelling. Her genuine Appalachian dialect and love for her Kentucky Mountains are the magic that brings her stories to life. She is a master storyteller and experienced teaching artist. Literary great Loyal Jones says, "Octavia is one of our few, true folk artists and her performances are authentic representations of the tradition from which she comes." Her stories carry the listener into the mountains of eastern Kentucky- where haints chill your blood, Jack tickles your funny bone, and the hills and hollers are full of surprises.
Anne Shelby
15705 North Hwy 11, Oneida, KY 40972-6242
606-847-4792
606-272-1304
annegshelby@gmail.com
Anne Shelby specializes in traditional Appalachian folk tales retold for contemporary audiences. Cast in the language she heard growing up in Southeastern Kentucky, Shelby's stories are plumb slam chuck full of Appalachian speech, history, and humor. A Kentucky Arts Council Master Storyteller, Shelby performs for schools, libraries, conferences, and festivals. Her books for children and adults include The Man Who Lived in a Hollow Tree, based on a legend passed down in her family, and The Adventures of Molly Whuppie and Other Appalachian Folktales, an American Folklore Society Aesop Accolade winner. She lives at her family homeplace in Clay County.
Don Ray Smith
9014 Hurstbourne Ln., Louisville, KY 40220
(502) 499-5664
(502) 297-7929
donthewriter@mac.com
donraysmith.net
Louisville native Don Ray Smith deals in contemporary humor, usually with adult (not dirty!) messages, from love to diversity to bust-out laughing parody and satire. He's performed at Spin-A-Yarn festival and various coffee houses in Louisville, at storytelling festivals in Hazard and elsewhere, and will be featured at a writers' retreat in Owensboro in early 2017. At times he livens up his stories with a mean pair of bongos. Don Ray can entertain your organization, book club, creative writing class or festival as he shows how he has "morphed" from journalist and humor writer to a humor "teller!"
Paul Strickland
837 Greer St. Apt 5, Covington, KY 41011
(615) 969-7870
paulstricklandartsyou@gmail.com
ainttrue.com
"An hour spent with master storyteller Paul Strickland is an hour well spent, and one you should not miss.” –Cincinnati Enquirer. Paul’s heartfelt and hilarious tall-tales and songs have been performed in virtually every imaginable environment, from Off-Broadway to elementary and middle schools, corporate events and even two prisons- where he was NOT an inmate at the time. Paul was an Exchange Place Teller at the National Storytelling Festival in 2018, and is a Featured Teller at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in 2020. Selections from his comedy performance “Levels of Difficulty” can be heard every day on SiriusXM radio.