Kory May
Kory May, 2x Distinguished Toastmaster, is a 16-year member of Toastmasters. Inspired by a mentor’s comment that she could see a future world champion of public speaking in him, Kory promptly made mistakes. He made so many mistakes so quickly that he began to improve at speaking. Kory is a five-time Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking Semifinalist, ranking in the top 20 in the world in 2015, and in the top 30 in 2018 and 2021. Recently, Kory began telling stories in story slams around the country. If history is correct, he’ll get better there too.
Mark Latta
Mark is an incredibly talented, strikingly handsome, wickedly smart, and unabashedly humble storyteller who isn’t afraid to write his own introductions. When not serving out his day job as a Program Manager at Transamerica, Mark spends his evenings writing horror stories. Sometimes they are even true.
Sue Schmitt
Sue Schmitt’s storytelling career began more than 40 years ago in the backseat of a car. Her oldest daughter was prone to terrible carsickness, so Sue would tell stories to distract her. A New Hampshire native, Sue, faced with mimicry and ridicule, has managed to hang on to some of her accent. She is proud that at her age, she still has both of the knees she was born with though several other parts of her have been removed. These parts were lost in Iowa, where she has lived for more than 30 years. Rest easy. None of her stories are about her missing pieces.”
Jamie Ward
“We repeatedly attempted to find someone who would or could write a few words about Jamie Ward and his storytelling style. We could not locate anyone, including Jamie, who would volunteer for such a daunting task.”
Ben Trachsel
Ben is a retired IT engineer living the dream in Iowa City. One of his stories is about Super Soakers- the kind that any smalltown fire department would love to have- and the havoc they can wreak on human relationships. Ben likes to do a myriad of nerdy, creative things in his spare time. Lucky for us, storytelling is one of them.
Gary Whitehill
Gary is the cranky old curmudgeon of the group. He is now retired after a forty-five-year career as an architect. Gary loves researching genealogy and expanding his family’s knowledge about their heritage. His stories revolve around family, but occasionally he goes off the deep end.
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