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.

Learn more about Andy Offutt Irwin

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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Milbre Burch

Milbre Burch is a GRAMMY-nominated spoken-word recording artist, an internationally known storyteller, a published writer, poet and scholar, and a produced playwright. Since 1978, she has performed and taught across the US, in Europe and Asia. Holding a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Missouri, she often uses storytelling to address social justice issues. In 2023 she made her ninth appearance at the National Storytelling Festival. In May, 2025, she returns to Jonesborough as a teller-in-residence at the International Storytelling Center. She’s currently revising a fantasy novel for publication.

With her media historian husband, Berkley Hudson, Milbre created the archival Storytelling Project of the Cotsen Children’s Library, housed at Princeton University. A freelance touring and teaching artist, and a Research Collaborator in the UNC American Studies Department, she coordinated and appeared in Remembrance and Renewal, a virtual storytelling festival at the University of North Carolina in the spring of 2021.

As a Georgia girl married to a Mississippi boy, Milbre has visited the Georgia Sea Islands for more than half a century. Her daughters – Katy Blake and Elizabeth – took their first steps on St Simons Island and return to the marshes of Glynn whenever they can.


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Sheila Arnold

Sheila Arnold has a talent for storytelling, a passion for history, and compassion for people.  She provides Storytelling, Historic Character Presentations, Christian Monologues, and Professional Development for schools, festivals, churches, and organizations nationally and internationally.  She is co-founder and Artistic Director of Artists Standing Strong Together (ASST) a source of inspiration, strength and action in the storytelling and artists world. Sheila has been honored as a 2021 MacDowell Artist Fellow, a 2020 Mt. Vernon Research Fellow and a 2019 Hewnoaks Artist Colony summer residence Noted Artist.  Sheila lives in Hampton, VA near her son, grandsons, and parents.  


Learn more about Sheila Arnold