DAN YASHINKSY
The Canadian teller best known internationally, Dan is one of the founders of Storytelling Toronto (formerly the Storytellers School) and the inspirational force behind the birth of the Toronto Festival of Storytelling. He also began the longest-running open mic storytelling 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. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for UNICEF Canada, Queen's University, and the Toronto Public Library and recipient of a prestigious Chalmers Arts Fellowship.