The Heart of Storytelling

David Thompson has been a teller for over 50 years. Focusing on the “forgotten” middle school through university students, his appearances in secondary/higher education have been applauded many times. Telling stories ranging from the truly ancient epics (which are his passion), adapted myths from other cultures setting them in West Texas, and obscure/forgotten history, David has told locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally and is frequently invited to contribute to events. One of six storytellers invited to represent the United States at the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival in Marrakech, Morroco, along with official appreciation from the government of the Republic of Ireland, plus 7 times gold medalist at the International Irish Storytelling Competition, his untiring dedication to storytelling proves that the story tells itself, you are the vehicle for its existence. Two personal mottos that keep him going are: “Children have storytellers, Adults need them” AND “Storytellers are the memory keepers.”You can find him at [email protected]

Dr Joanna Gilar is a writer and storyteller with a PhD in fairy tales and ecological storytelling from the University of Chichester. She is founder and director of StoryCommons CIC, a fairy tale collective dedicated to building resilience via story. Their projects include Rewilding Cinderella, a collaboration of 14 artists, poets and storytellers from minoritized communities across the UK to celebrate the wild diversity of Cinder stories.Joanna is visiting lecturer in children’s and young adult literature at the University of Roehampton, and has taught courses and workshops on fairy tales and storytelling since 2016. She is co-editor of The World Treasury of Fairy Tales and Folklore (Wellfleet Press, 2016), and has published numerous articles on rewilding fairy tales. As a storyteller, she has performed across the UK and Europe, in venues ranging from festivals to universities, Italian castles to Bohemian forests. She has created land-based, wild-story performances for ONCA, Into the Wild, Queer Spirit, Treadwells and Advaya. Her performances have been described as “spell-binding”, “breath-taking”, “astonishing” and “a gift.”www.wildstorycommons.orgwww.joannagilar.com

Our guest today is Clinton Atwater, founder of Storytelling Connections and a storyteller who truly embodies the belief that stories are bridges between hearts and minds. Clinton's journey began around a Michigan campfire, where family stories sparked a lifelong passion for the oral tradition. But his path wasn't direct—he spent years as a Pharmacy Operations Manager before discovering his authentic voice through Toastmasters and eventually stepping into the storytelling world.What makes Clinton special isn't just his performances at festivals, schools, and libraries, but his dedication to empowering others. Through his storytelling community "Let Me Tell Ya!", he creates spaces where both seasoned storytellers and newcomers can share their voices. When COVID threatened live storytelling, he didn't hesitate—he brought the community online, proving that stories can connect us even across distance. This year, Clinton received the ORACLE Award from the National Storytelling Network, recognizing his tireless work building the Mid-Atlantic storytelling community.But at its heart, Clinton's work is about something deeper than entertainment—it's about the fundamental human need to be heard, understood, and connected.www.StorytellingConnections.comhttps://linqapp.com/clinton_atwater?r=linkhttps://www.facebook.com/storytelling.connectionshttps://www.instagram.com/storytelling.connections/

Louise Gwenneth Phillips is a professional storyteller, coach, consultant, teacher, researcher, author and honorary Associate Professor in the School of Education, The University of Queensland. Her research and publications focus on story(tell)ing, children’s rights and citizenship, arts and rights-based pedagogies and methodologies (see https://louptales.education/publications/).She is particularly enchanted by the lore of everyday folk which have been told from person to person across generations and millennia. To hold and embrace this wisdom, Louise crafts global folktales into hankies and scarfs, so you can keep the wisdom of the story close to you.Email: [email protected]

Having told stories since 1973, storytelling has played a major part in her life and has taken Liz to five continents. Recently she attended the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival  with 100 tellers from 33 countries where she took part in the successful attempt to break the World Record for the longest continuous oral  storytelling session - 80 hours and 35 minutes.https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2025/01/165264/marrakech-breaks-guinness-world-record-for-longest-storytelling-session/As she started telling stories in Belfast during our "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, a time when violence was raging on the streets, Liz learned how important the art of storytelling can be as it can encourage people to listen to each other. Listening to stories which may be very different from our own shows respect , and respect can lead to dialogue which can often lead to the peaceful resolution of conflict.She wrote an article about it here https://storynet.org/out-of-the-tunnel-and-into-the-light-of-peace/Liz is the Storyteller in Residence for a charity which promotes storytelling throughout Northern Ireland and her current focus is on training people from both sides of the Irish Border to tell stories - see https://www.armstory.org.uk/projects/border-talk-She does a lot of intergenerational storytelling, bringing our young people and elders together to promote this invaluable intangible art.  Storytelling is a living tradition and we must inspire our young people to continue the rich tradition. It celebrates cultural diversity and hence encourages communication between people of all backgrounds.For more information, see her website:Liz Weir – Storyteller | Writer