2024 National Festival

Sufian Zhemukhov is an award-winning author and performer, featured Off-Broadway and nationwide. Sufian's shows “about romance, culture, and one immigrant's story” (NPR) have covered adventures in cross-cultural dating, the politics of picking blueberries, and receiving unexpected messages from Jesus while shoe shopping. Sufian is a featured teller at the 2024 National Storytelling Festival. He served as the 2023 Teller in Residence at the International Storytelling Center, received the 2020 JJ Reneaux Emerging Artist Award from the National Storytelling Network, and appeared on the PBS TV show Stories from the Stage and the NPR Moth Radio Hour. As a scholar, he won the 2019 Best Book Award from the International Studies Association. A political analyst by day, Sufian draws from his unique vantage point as a first-generation immigrant, which is funnier than it might sound.