| Dan Yashinsky is a Toronto-based storyteller, radio host, author, and community organizer. He received, in 1999, the first Jane Jacobs Prize for his work with storytelling in the community. He founded the Toronto Festival of Storytelling (in 1979) and co-founded the Storytellers School of Toronto. He also began the longest-running open session in North America: 1,001 Friday Nights of Storytelling (in 1978). He has performed and taught at festivals in Israel, Wales, England, Germany, Brazil, Austria, France, the U.S., Singapore, Ireland, and across Canada. He is the editor of four acclaimed collections of Canadian storytelling and the author of Suddenly They Heard Footsteps — Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century. He developed and hosted Talking Stick, a national storytelling radio show on CBC. His work in schools includes creating the Telling Bee, a story-based curriculum project that has taken place in more than 40 Ontario schools. Dan has an M.A. in Sociology in Education from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. in Literature. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for UNICEF Canada, Queen's University, and Toronto Public Library. In 2006 he created, with composer/musician Brian Katz, a piece called Talking You In, exploring the experiences of a family in the neo-natal intensive care unit. |