Featured Story Teller

 

Featured Writer

Michael Gray

by J. Smith Kirkland

Michael Gray grew up on a dairy farm in Morristown in East Tennessee. I met him in Chattanooga as a member of a poets group. But it wasn't long before I learned his only storytelling outlet was not poetry.

Mike first performed as a spoken word artist in1984, presenting an original piece at The Knoxville Barbeque Contest . But if you are a Chattanooga local, you may know him as the host of The River City Sessions. As producer, director and performer he developed the concept for The River City Sessions, which was a monthly event at The Camp House, and later continued at UTC and The Granfalloon. It was a collaboration of poets, authors, story tellers, and musicians whose work honors life in the south and the tradition of southern literature and music. The show was broadcast on WUTC 88.1 locally and across the internet on WUTC.org two weeks after the live show.

Michael has also been on the air a few times performing Halloween shows and a Valentine’s Day show.

In 2013, he received a fellowship as the Writer in Residence at Wildacres, Little Switzerland, NC. There he performed several stories from the upcoming series The Promised Land at the foot of Mount Mitchell surrounded by The Pisgah National Forest, the source of their inspiration.

Michael has been the MC and a performer several years at the Ketner's Mill Fair, where he also booked acts for the stage and helped showcase other local and regional talent.

He is an author, musician, and humorist. His talent as a storyteller is evident in all the formats, and we have included one of his tales in written format in this issue. But if you ever meet him, get him to tell you a story. You can't beat hearing it in real life.