Archivist, folklorist, teacher, singer and storyteller, Anita Best is a true renaissance artist in the Newfoundland folk / traditional scene. She has recorded on numerous albums, and has two of her own – The Colour of Amber (with Pamela Morgan) and Crosshanded, an a capella recording of twelve traditional Newfoundland ballads. While it is her singing which has made her famous, she remains a much-sought-after storyteller and has toured extensively telling and singing. Anita Best was the host and writer of a local CBC radio series, "A Little Ball of Yarns" in 1995-96 which celebrated storytelling, and for years ran a local concert series that combined music, readings, recitations and storytelling. For some time now, she has been preparing the stories of her father-in-law Pius Power Sr., an acclaimed storyteller from Placentia Bay, for publication. Best is from Placentia Bay herself, and tells stories from that region and other regions of Newfoundland.

Based in Corner Brook, Elinor Benjamin has been one of the great forces and sources of storytelling on the west coast of Newfoundland for more than fifteen years. She performed in libraries for many years, while working in the provincial library system’s administration. Now, a full-time storyteller, she works for the school board promoting arts in the classroom. She has told stories across the island and across the country. In 2003, she was toured Quebec for Canadian Children’s Book Week.

Renowned storyteller Rita Cox has performed across North America, in Europe, Brazil and the Caribbean. Originally from Trinidad, she lives in Toronto where she worked for years as a librarian. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada for her work in storytelling and literacy, has received honorary degrees from two universities for the same efforts, and has been given the Black Achievement Award. Having Cox participate in our event will be a wonderful opportunity for local storytellers to meet and exchange stories with one of the pre-eminent tellers in the country. .

Originally from the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, Ford Elms is an accomplished storyteller and set dancer. His recitations of anything from Roald Dahl to Rudyard Kipling are always a favourite part of folk club open mic. He has told Newfoundland stories locally and at the Vancouver Folk Festival, and will serve as host at one or more of our evenings.

A St. John’s-based storyteller who works with our local chapter of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Project, Mary Fearon was trained by its founder, Katherine Greer. Fearon has conducted workshops in storytelling, performed in schools and at a day-long storytelling event held in St. John’s a few years ago. She has recently completed, with Lori Fritz, Over the Big Fat Waves, a collection of Newfoundland and Labrador rhymes, songs and language games, for use in literacy programs.

Jean Hewson is a well known musician and teacher, who is committed to "passing on" the unique musical repertoire of Newfoundland. She has performed extensively throughout Canada, the US and the UK with fiddler/cellist Christina Smith and given many seminars in traditional singing and guitar accompaniment at festivals, conferences and music camps. Jean also works tirelessly as the President of the St. John's Folk Arts Council and chairs the SJFAC Festival Program Committee.  Her considerable charm and humour make her an excellent host as well as an entertainer.

Born in Alberta and steeped in family stories of life on the prairie for new Icelandic and Danish immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Karen has been called "Big Ears". Those keen listening devices have served her well. She has gained the gift of tales from many generous folk and family members. Through her extensive work as artist in residence in Calgary schools over the past 7 years as well as her participation in the storytelling communities of T.A.L.E.S. and the Storytellers of Canada, those stories have been shared and honed. She has been selected to travel to Newfoundland in November of 2004 for the Canadian Children's Book Centre Book Week. So the tales will travel and be given again to new ears. May they be big.

Dale Jarvis is a performer, researcher, writer and storyteller in St. John’s; he also works for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, and is a Director of the Newfoundland Historic Trust. As a storyteller, he has performed locally and at international festivals. Since 1997, he has been telling ghost stories in downtown St. John's all summer and every Hallowe'en as host of the St. John's Haunted Hike. In 2002, he collaborated with musician Delf Hohmann to present Under the Juniper Tree: Stories and Songs from the Brothers Grimm at the Yukon International Storytelling Festival in Whitehorse and the International Sound Symposium in St. John's.

Best known as a member of Newfoundland’s acclaimed comedy troupe CODCO, as an actor on stage and in films, as a writer and director, Andy Jones is one of Newfoundland’s best-loved and most renowned performers. With the theatre collective SHEILA'S BRUSH, he worked to preserve, promote and adapt several Newfoundland tales, most notably Jack Meets the Cat, which was also an award-winning radio play. The script has been published in Dan Yashinsky’s collection At the Edge: A Book of Risky Stories. He co-wrote with Philip Dinn Jack-Five-Oh, a storytelling play which marked the 50th anniversary of Newfoundland’s entry into Canadian confederation; a version of the play continues to tour. Jones is also an accomplished storyteller in the more traditional sense, who has taken his work with local “Jack” tales into schools, and frequently performs in benefits and concerts. In 2003, he and Dinn published Peg Bearskin, their adaptation of a traditional tale from Placentia Bay.

Well-known and highly respected on the island as a teller of traditional and community tales, Alice Lannon lives in Southeast Placentia. She has told stories at festivals, workshops and special heritage events, and credits her gift as a storyteller to her grandmother.

Growing up a Newfoundland Cockney who later learned a Quebecois French, Louise Moyes developed a fascination for accents, gestures, and other distinguishing cultural features. Her work has gradually evolved to an amalgam of storytelling and movement, 'docu-dance', with an emphasis on the saving grace of humour, the personal as political, and vice versa. She has performed across Canada, in Iceland, Italy, Germany and Brazil.

Poet, playwright, actor, storyteller and oral historian, Agnes Walsh has long been active in collecting and preserving the stories and lore of the Cape Shore region of Newfoundland. Her efforts to preserve the rich traditions of that area have led her to collect and develop local stories into folk plays, and to establish “The Tramore Theatre Troupe,” a small theatrical troupe composed of untrained actors and traditional singers with whom she works intensively. Her work has taken her to Bere Island, Ireland, where with the support of the Irish government, she collaborated with a community group to help them develop a similar initiative to research, learn and promote their stories.