Andy Offutt Irwin, Emcee

With a manic, Silly Putty voice, astonishing mouth noises, and heart-filled stories, Andy Offutt Irwin is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer. He has been a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival eleven times and is a perennial favorite at the International Storytelling Center’s Teller-in-Residence series. 

A storyteller, theatre director, singer-songwriter, and Shakespearean actor, Andy was Artist-in-Residence at Emory University’s Oxford College from 1991 to 2007.  He has performed at LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York, The Library of Congress, Walt Disney World, and a whole mess of theatres, colleges, and festivals all over the United States 
Andy lives in Covington, Georgia. He thinks he is funny.

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Donald Davis

Donald Davis was born in a Southern Appalachian mountain world rich in stories. While he heard many traditional stories about Jack and other heroic characters, he was most attracted to the stories of his own family and places of origin.  Davis begin retelling the stories he heard and then adding his own new stories to them until he was repeatedly asked to tell it again, on purpose.

During his twenty-five year career as a United Methodist Minister, Davis began to use stories more and more.  He was also asked to begin performing at festivals and in other settings until he retired from the church to tell stories full time.

The author of nineteen books and more than fifty original recordings, Davis is the recipient of both the Circle of Excellence and the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Storytelling Network.

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Mokoto Dworkin Bio

Recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s 2017 Circle of Excellence Award, Motoko has captivated audiences of all ages since 1993. Featured at festivals and theaters throughout the United States, she brings to life a rich repertoire of Asian folktales, Rakugo and Zen tales, ghost stories, and oral memoirs inspired by her childhood in Osaka and her journey as an immigrant. Storytelling has taken her to China, Japan, Senegal, and the U.A.E. She is the author of A Year in Japan: Folktales, Songs and Art for the Classroom.

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Noa Baum

The Washington Post describes Noa Baum as someone who "Spreads cultural truths that eclipse geopolitical boundaries...". An internationally acclaimed storyteller, author, speaker and coach, she offers a unique combination of performance art and practical workshops that focus on the power of narrative to heal across the divides of identity and promote compassion and peace. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Noa trained in theatre at Tel-Aviv University, studied acting with Uta Hagen and received an MA in Educational Theater from NYU. Since 1982, she’s been presenting internationally. Noa is the author of two books: “A Land Twice Promised – an Israeli Woman’s Quest for Peace” - winner of the Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award, the LDS Publishing Professionals Association Award, and a Storytelling World Award - and picture book “How the Birds Became Friends”, on the power of kindness to bring peace. Her audio recordings won Parents’ Choice and Storytelling World awards.

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