Selections

NTIF Storytellers

Story telling is a strong tradition in Ireland and many other parts of the Celtic world. NTIF features local storytellers on both the Urchin Street Stage and a number of our other music stages throughout the weekend.

Liz Covington

Elizabeth ’Liz’ Covington is an active member of several Celtic organizations, and has been with NTIF, the Austin Celtic Festival, and the Celtic Heritage Festival for the past 6 years.

She is also an active member of the Tejas Storytelling Association and the Tarrant Area Guild of Storytellers as a Storyteller/Oral Historian. She preformes at Schools, Museums, Retirement Centers, Civic Clubs, Libraries, Festivals, Stories Under the Stars, teaches storytelling, and leads Ladies retreats.

Rickey Pittman & Tom McCandlish

Rickey E. Pittman, storyteller, author, and guitarist/singer was the Grand Prize Winner of the 1998 Ernest Hemingway Short Story Competition, and is originally from Dallas, Texas. The author and freelance editor earned a BA in New Testament Greek and an MA in English from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. After moving to Monroe, Louisiana, Pittman was added to the Louisiana Roster of Artists in 1998. Working closely with regional art councils, he was commissioned to write historical plays for Franklin, Madison and Webster parishes. In addition to his freelance journalism, editing, and nonfiction writing, he has published short stories, poetry, and a novel, Red River Fever.

Rickey presents his stories, music and programs at schools, libraries, organizations, Civil War Reenactments, and Celtic festivals throughout the South. He is a certified Secondary Gifted English teacher and currently teaches freshman composition for Louisiana Delta Community College, the University of Louisiana at Monroe and Virginia College Online.

Tom McCandlish will be joining Rickey’s storytelling and music this year on Urchin Street. Tom is the lead vocalist and bodhrain player for Angus-Dubhghall, a Celtic band in Northeast Lousiana. He has a great love of all things Scottish and Irish, and is current president of the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Society and founder of Monroe’s Men in Kilts Brotherhood. His Scottish ancestors hailed from the southern borderlands of Scotland and Northern Ireland. He is a charter board member of the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Festival and the Highlands Games coordinator.

Gary Whitaker

Storyteller Gary Whitaker, The Storyman, is a lover of the Irish and Scottish Folk tales and legends. Whether he is telling a folk tale like Eachann’s Bull or a faery legend about the Good Folk and their mischievous ways or a tale about matching wits with a troll he will bring the stories to life with charm and wit.

Gary tied for 2nd place in the 7th Annual National Irish Storytelling Contest held in Bourne Texas 2008. Gary has been performing in the children’s area at the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas for over 5 years now. Be sure not to miss the Storyman.

John Burleson

John Burleson has been performing in Texas since the mid 80’s and is a veteran of all but the first NTIF. Storytelling appearances include Texas Folklife Festival, Ohio Renaissance Festival, Mississippi Celtic Fest, and many school, library, concert and club dates in Ireland and Ontario.

His love of the spoken word comes from a lifelong attraction to folklore and mythology.

Jane McDaniel

Born 1945 in Limerick, Ireland, Jane started to write and retell stories at an early age thanks in part to a rich family storytelling tradition. She lived to a certain extent between two cultures; a staunch English Protestant father and a Catholicw mother from Belfast. She attended schools in Limerick and university in Germany, where she also worked as a business print journalist and radio news reporter 26 years before moving to the USA in 1993.

She first told stories to a larger public while hosting annual St. Patrick’s Day specials for AFN Forces Radio Network in Frankfurt, Germany. She was a featured Rising Star at the Texas State Storytelling Festival in Denton, 2002, held the title of US National Irish Storytelling Champion for four years (2004 ­ 2007), and was voted The Biggest Irish Liar in Texas in 2006.

2009 Schedule of Performers

The 2010 performer schedule will be released in early January.