Dan Yashinsky has been telling stories for more than forty years. The founder of the Toronto Storytelling Festival and the co-founder of the Storytellers School of Toronto (now called Storytelling Toronto), he has shared his stories across the world — at festivals, in schools and hospitals, in theatres and community spaces. He is the editor of four acclaimed folk tale collections, and the author of several books including Tales for an Unknown City, which received the Toronto Book Award, and Suddenly They Heard Footsteps: Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century. In 1999, he was named recipient of the first Jane Jacobs Prize, in recognition of his contributions as a storyteller to enhance the cultural life of Toronto.