One of our favorite tellers and past presidents returning to the stage in 2026. Jeff Stratton retired from the Tucson police and moved to Jonesborough, TN. He departed the US to move to Portugal in 2019. …

Zacharias is from Morristown TN and is an East Tennessee State graduate, with a master’s in communication studies. Currently, he works at ETSU as an adjunct teacher, working towards full professorship in the future. Zach is a firm believer in …

Performing Members of the Jonesborough Storytellers Guild

This is a list of Jonesborough Storytellers Guild currently available storytellers, with information about what, how, where, and to whom they like to tell. Click the name to see a performer’s biography and …

Travis accidentally became a storyteller through his use of stories teaching languages across the multiverse of ages and cultures. He is a recent Graduate from the East Tennessee State University Communication & Storytelling Master’s Program and is excited …

Ellender Rose Webster comes from a family of Southern Appalachian writers, musicians, and storytellers. As a child she assisted her grandmother in collecting folklore in Southwest Virginia, particularly ghost stories and monster tales. She tells tales from her rural Appalachian …

Introducing Samuel Smith, a fresh voice in the realm of Appalachian storytelling, hailing from the enchanting town of Mountain City, Tennessee. For the past 25 years, Samuel has dedicated himself to educating young minds as a high school Spanish teacher, …

Jack is from Dorchester SC where he serves as Poet Laureate of the county. He has been telling stories for over 25 years in venues both large and small across the America. 

The Storytelling Arts Center of the Southeast by jury declared Shealy – the Bold-Faced Liar Champion.

With a twinkle in his eye, Shealy said, “of course I embellished the truth slightly.” The …

Catherine Yael Serota is an author and storyteller. She is a native of Asheville and spent much of her life in Western North Carolina– most recently in Waynesville. She is a product of a private Catholic girls’ academy education and …

Joy is a graduate of ETSU’s Storytelling Certificate Program. 
Life has brought her from the tenements of Manhattan, to the 11th floor of a housing project in The Bronx, to the north shore of Eastern Long Island, and …

Delanna Reed is a storyteller, teacher, mentor, and scholar. She began her teaching career and discovered storytelling in 1985 as a MA student at the University of North Texas. In 1999, after teaching communication and performance for 13 years, she …

James (Jim) T Priesmeyer is a retired Builder. During the course of his career he built businesses and buildings. The companies/organizations he helped build include a professional theater company, a stage rigging company and a historic preservation organization. …

Founding Member

Linda Poland, Jonesborough’s Resident Storyteller, also called “The Jonesborough Flame,” teaches storytelling at the John C. Campbell Folk School and is a founding member of the Jonesborough Storytellers’ Guild. Using her talents as a storyteller she was one …

In 2016 when Betty Ann Polaha signed up to audit a storytelling class, she never dreamed that three years later she would have earned a storytelling certificate and would be named Outstanding Storyteller Performer at East Tennessee State University.

Betty …

Since 1990, Leticia’s storytelling has enlivened audiences and educators across the U.S. in classrooms, libraries, and at festivals, fairs and conferences. Being a professionally trained musician, she masterfully intertwines song and music into her storytelling.

Leticia offers education-based …

Sherrie grew up in Jonesborough with a large extended family hearing stories of farm life and old family values.

Her Granny Dunn and other special family members had a major impact on her life. After a successful career …

Cynthia Millhorn is an accomplished storyteller who ignites imaginations and hearts with her thoughtful, intriguing tales of human nature, myth, and spirituality.
Cynthia skillfully creates original fables, reimagines folktales, retells factual histories, and crafts inspiring personal stories that …

“Once upon a time,” my Grandfather would read to me, and I was totally enchanted. These fairy tales made perfect sense to me. The world that I lived in was full of magic: blossoms pushed out of the dead ground, …

Kiesa Kay, poet and playwright, learned the art of storytelling from her mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. She found fairy tales and creation myths in boxes of books from an auction. Her works have been performed in venues in seven …

Emily finally realized what connects her various work in veterinary medicine, classroom teaching, and magazine publishing—it’s communication, and it’s storytelling. So she recently completed her Master’s studying both at ETSU. She currently splits her time writing, researching, performing, crafting, medicating …

Vianna Isbister is a dynamic multi-hyphenate performer and academic with a B.A. in Theatre and an M.A. in Communication and Storytelling Studies. Her work bridges the gap between the spoken and the unspoken, blending performance art with academic insights …

Laurie Herlich loves living in rural northeast Tennessee, where Story is everything. She writes flash fiction and cozy mysteries in a converted garden hut situated in her backyard. Laurie is a regular contributor to www.christiandevotions.us and won a …

After many years of teaching elementary school,
Evelyn Edwards was retired and needed something to do. She made a phone call and talked with Dr. Sobel at ETSU who gave her good advice and welcomed her to take …

With a twinkle in her eye, Judy Donley describes her stories as “practically true…at least in my mind!”

She grew up in a large family of 12 children in Massachusetts who, with encouragement from their father, would share stories at …