MEET THE STORYTELLERS

This year's line-up looks to be one of the best that the Four Corners Storytelling Festival has offered. Come on down to the river and listen to some great stories, laugh a lot and weep a little. Stories that will entertain all ages. Don't miss this great event!

Minton Sparks

Minton Sparks fuses poetry and her intoxicating gift for storytelling into performances punctuated with world-class music. Sparks peeks over the edge into the warm spot where most would prefer to let sleeping relatives lie. Her poetry and stories share her memories of growing up in small-town Tennessee. Sparks’ family may not walk the straight and narrow, but they’re guaranteed to walk straight into your heart, leaving you with something essential to ponder. Grammy nominated Sparks has released two books on Thomas Nelson Press: a book of poetry Desperate Ransom and her first novel White Lightning as well as three spoken word CDs and a performance DVD, “Open Casket”.

Michael Reno Harrell

Michael Reno Harrell hails from the Southern Appalachians, where storytelling is a long standing tradition. An award winning songwriter and storyteller, Michael was the kid who begged “Tell me what it was like.” From family members like, “Motorcycle” Eddie Cole, who owned the first motorcycle in those parts, to his compadre Stover Mason, who was still raising fox hounds at 103, Michael gathered facts, fabrications and fibs which have seeped into his stories and songs like mountain rain. Humor was what helped get those old timers through a hard existence and it is a big part of Michael’s performances today.

Dovie Thomason

As a narrative voice and teller of traditional stories from her Lakota and Kiowa Apache relations, Dovie has been featured in documentaries about Native People and storytelling for the BBC, NPR, and PBS, including The Call of Story and the Emmy-winning Mystic Voices . When she adds stories from her own life and her people s experience, the result is a contemporary vision of the rich cultures of the First Nations of North America told with elegance, wit and passion. She is a favorite voice at major storytelling festivals throughout North America and abroad. As a member of the National Storytelling Network, she is an honoree in NSN s Circle of Excellence, receiving their prestigious Oracle Award in 2007.

Willy Claflin

Willy Claflin was born before television. He grew up impersonating wild life in the woods of New Hampshire . Then he went to Harvard where he did not lose his imagination--he became a folk singer. Then he had to get a job so he taught school. Then he was hijacked by a troupe of hand puppets, including one alien life form. A full time performer and writer for the last 25 years, Claflin tells original and traditional stories, sings his own songs; plus 1,032, old, mostly bloody, ballads from Scotland and Appalachia—and some rock and roll. Many of his ten recordings are award winners—see www.willyclaflin.com . Willy is the speaking mouth person for Maynard Moose, a famous storyteller with whom he travels the story telling circuit. One of his pals, Dr. Al, a talking alligator head, is a professor of psycho-linguistics from LSU. Willy has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival five times.

Beth Horner

Beth Horner is noted for her vivacious stage presence and a warm, energetic style punctuated with music and humor. She has recorded for Live >From National Geographic, is a National Storytelling Network Circle of Excellence Award winner and is working with NASA, collecting stories about the Apollo Space Missions. Beth’s love of all kinds of stories - personal, literary, historical and hysterical - makes her the perfect emissary into the world of the imagination.

Waddie Mitchell

From his earliest days on the remote Nevada ranches where his father worked, Waddie was immersed in the cowboy way of entertaining, the art of spinnin’ tales in rhyme and meter that came to be called cowboy poetry, a Western tradition that is as rich as the lifestyle that gave birth to it. Within his stories, told in a voice that is timeless and familiar, are the common bonds we all share, moments both grand and commonplace, the humorous and the tragic, the life and death struggles and triumphs that we each recognize. And yet, Waddie presents his material with personal insights and the lessons learned during his life spend as a buckaroo.

Teresa clark

Born in Idaho, raised in Ontario, Manitoba, and Maryland, educated in Utah and Hawaii, Teresa Clark sprinkles her life experiences over everything she tells. A national award-winning storyteller and teaching artist, Teresa is best known for her original works and recollections of life’s experiences blended with history. She has performed at events throughout the nation – including the prestigious “Exchange Place” of the National Storytelling Festival. She recently completed her term as the Board Co-Chair for the National Storytelling Network. Of her it has been said, “…her performances are filled with a compelling sense of wonder and an irresistible zest for life.”

Top