Since 1967, Diane Wolkstein has occupied a unique place in the world of storytelling and literature. Through her performances, teaching, books, and recordings, she has played a major role in the renewed interest in mythology and the modern storytelling movement.

In 1964, Diane went to Paris to study pantomine with Etienne Decroux, whose best–known student was Marcel Marceau. She also took many jobs to pay for her classes. The one job that changed her life was teaching Sunday school classes at the Temple Copernic, where she told the children stories from the Bible.

When she returned to the United States in 1966, while studying for her M.A. in Education from Bank Street College in New York, she told ecumenical stories at All Souls' Church, a Unitarian Universalist congregation. The following year, she was hired as a "recreational director" within the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Diane described that moment in The Horn Book Magazine (November 1992 issue): "I began in McCray park in Harlem, standing in front of a crowd of about a hundred children. Radios were blaring and water pistols were firing. I skipped through my carefully–memorized rendition of 'Peter Rabbit' to improvise the Nigerian folk tale 'Fattest of All.'

"I don't recall how many 'very's' I said, but at a certain point the radios were turned down, and the children were saying 'very' with me. We were laughing and 'very–ing' together, and my career as the Official Storyteller of New York City began."

Her new job took her throughout the city, and caught the attention of The New York Times and the Associated Press. That fall, her summer job became a full–time career, and Diane told stories at schools, hospitals, day care centers, senior citizen centers, and parks. And her own radio show, Stories from Many Lands, premiered on WNYC–AM/FM in 1968, and remained on the air until 1981.

In the early 1970's, Diane's search for stories led her to Haiti where she collected over four hundred stories and later published three books: The Magic Orange Tree and other Haitian Folktales (Random House/Schocken, 1978, reprinted in 1997), The Banza (Penguin/Dial, 1981), and Bouki Dances the Kokioko (Harcourt, 1997). The Magic Orange Tree, in particular, is memorable not only for its poigant stories but also for the personal vignettes of the Haitian storytellers. It is now considered a classic in both the storytelling and the publishing worlds. Each year, several of its twenty–seven stories is reprinted in a major anthology.

A year after The Magic Orange Tree was published, Diane was drawn to the myth of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, the goddess of love, war, and fertility as well as the morning and evening star (Venus). This epic, written on cuneiform tablets, dates back to 1900 B.C.E. It is the world's oldest written epic as well as the only epic of a woman. Diane worked on the text for three years in collaboration with the eminent Sumerologist, Samuel Noah Kramer. In 1983, HarperCollins published Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. Today, Inanna is a major part of Diane's repertoire, and she has told it (often with the musical accompaniment of Geoffrey Gordon) in such diverse places as London, Crete, Austria, Australia, and Israel. Diane's version is frequently cited, and excerpted, in books dealing with religion, literature, healing, and goddess spirituality. Inanna has been published in five languages, and has been made into a ballet and opera (see Publications).

From 1983 to 1990, Diane worked on the seven epics to be published in her book, The First Love Stories: From Isis and Osiris to Tristan and Iseult (HarperCollins, 1991). Her research took her to Israel, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. She began telling these and other "large stories" in theatres and museums for adults. In 1995 Diane traveled to Australia to work on an Aboriginal creation story &madsh; SunMother Wakes the World — and to live in the desert in preparation for writing a collection of Jewish stories. The project grew into an eight year adventure, during which time Diane went to Israel to study Hebrew in order to understand the Jewish calendar and its relationship to story and ritual. In 2003, Random House/Schocken published Treasures of the Heart: Holiday Stories that reveal the Soul of Judaism.

Diane is known as a "storyteller's storyteller" because of her wide range and knowledge of storytelling. Her programs include folk and fairy tales for children and families at schools, libraries, parks and festivals, and epics and myths for adults at festivals, theatres, museums, and libraries. She is a sought after speaker/storyteller for keynotes and celebrations. In addition to her performing and writing, in a desire to create a community of learning for storytellers, Diane founded the first educational conference for the National Storytelling Institute in Jonesborough, Tennesseee in 1978, and co–founded the Storytelling Center, Inc. of New York City in 1983. She started the first storytelling course at Bank Street College in 1972 and taught storytelling there until 1996. She has taught courses in mythology at Sarah Lawrence, The New School, and Pacific Graduate School. For eighteen years, she taught mythology at New York University and continues to tour internationally giving workshops on myth and the art of storytelling. Diane directs the storytelling programs at the Statue of Hans Christian Andersen in Central Park in the summer and at Scandinavia House in the winter.

Her latest project is the writing and producing of Journey to the West, a Buddhist/Taoist parable that she is working on with Taoist master Sat Hon and Bharatnatyam dancer Anita Ratnam.

In Diane's words:

"It is a naked business, that of the storyteller. Despite the time and care that I might take in choosing my clothes or stories, once the story begins, there is not much protection. The work of the storyteller, as I have come to understand it, is to express the spirit, and that means full exposure. Whatever story I tell, it is an expression of who I am and my intention to bring understanding and courage that we each may live the potential of our spirit.
 
"The seed for storytelling was planted in my childhood. My mother told me stories at night. The Rabbi at the neighborhood synagogue told short, pithy stories. The stories my mother told were entertaining and reassuring; the Rabbi's stories were riveting. What to do when two people are in the desert and there is only water enough for one? Why are we here? Is there a purpose given to each of us?"

Media Appearances
(in alphabetical order, arranged by broadcaster or producer)

ABC News (American Broadcasting Company)
20/20, 1978
Good Morning America, 1998
 
Australian Broadcasting Corporation — Radio National
Late Night Live (with Phillip Adams), 1995 and 1996
 
BBC Radio 4 (British Broadcasting Corporation)
Tales from the Statue (radio documentary), 2003
 
CBC Radio One (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
This Morning, 1991
 
CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System)
CBS News Sunday Morning (with Charles Kuralt), 1992
(to celebrate her 25th year of storytelling)
 
CNN (Cable News Network) — 1992
 
KCET–TV, Los Angeles, Cailfornia
(Public Broadcasting Service)
Storytime (PBS national series), 1994
 
Lichtenstein Creative Media (syndicator/producer)
The Infinite Mind (heard on select NPR/PRI stations), 2000
 
WAMC–FM, Albany, New York
(National Public Radio)
The Roundtable, December 19, 2003
 
WNBC–TV, New York City (NBC–Universal)
Today (New York regional segments), June 1993 and May 7, 1999
 
WNYC–AM/FM, New York City
(National Public Radio/Public Radio International)
Stories from Many Lands, 1968–1981
The Brian Lehrer Show, December 30, 2003
 
WOR–AM, New York City
The Joey Reynolds Show, December 20, 2003
 
WRHU–FM, Hempstead, New York
(Hofstra University)
The Janice Buckner Learn–Along Radio Show, August 15, 1998
(with Philip David Morgan as guest presenter)
 
Wisconsin Public Radio
(National Public Radio)
Ideas Network (with Jean Faraca), August 25, 1999
Here on Earth, December 7, 2003
 
(Also numerous storytelling performances and interviews on National Public Radio
and its affiliated stations and networks from 1979 onward)

"Toda el mundo es bienvenido: Una entrevista con Diane Wolkstein" (Interview by Regina Ress), Tantágora, Spring 2007.

"The Making of Esther's Story" (interview by Joan Leotta), Storytelling Magazine, March 1996.

"Her Story, and Sticking to It," by Don McDonald, New York Post, June 5, 1992.

"Inanna as a Woman of Power" (interview by Regina Ress), The Quest, Spring 1990.

Residencies

Yaddow (1994)
MacDowell (1993)
Virginia Colony for the Creative Arts (1980, 1987, 1989, 1993)
Cummington Colony for the Arts (1984, 1985)
Honorable Mention New York Academy of Sciences, 1972
Lithgow&Osborne Fellowship (1976)
Marshall Grant (1969)
M.A., Bank Street College of Education (1967)
B.A., Smith College, Theatre (1964)

Brooklyn College (New York City)
Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island)
Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, Michigan)
City University of New York Graduate Center
Dominican University of California (where the opera The Descent of Inanna was performed)
Douglas University
Lehigh University (Pennsylvania)
McGill University (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
New York University
Pace University (New York)
Pacifica Graduate Institute (Carpinteria, California)
Rutgers University (State University of New Jersey)
Seattle University (Washington State)
Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts)
SUNY Rockland Community College/Center for Jewish Life
Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York)
UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles)
University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Mississippi at Hattiesburg
University of New Mexico at Albuquerque
University of Tennessee/Center for Children & Young Adult Literature (Knoxville, Tennessee)
University of Wyoming at Laramie
Yale University

Libraries

Jewish Community Library (San Francisco, California)
Jewish Public Library (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
New York Public Library/Donnell Library Center
Pleasanton Public Library (California)
Toronto Public Library (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
West Orange Public Library (New Jersey)

Other Performance Venues

American Museum of Folk Art (New York City)
American Museum of Natural History/Kauffman Theatre (New York City)
Asia Society (New York City)
Austin Area Interreligious Ministries (Austin, Texas)
Barnes & Noble Booksellers (Greenwich Village, New York City)
Battery Park City/Rector Park (New York City)
British Museum (London, England)
C. G. Jung Foundation (New York City; Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; Sydney and Perth, Australia)
Camden Ceilidh 2007 (London, England)
Central Michigan Story Festival
Central Park/Statue of Hans Christian Andersen (New York City)
The Coffee Club (New York City)
Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival (New Jersey)
Interfaith Center of New York
Jefferson Market Gardens (New York City)
Jewish Community Center (New York City) (International Carlebach Festival)
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (New York City)
Madison Jewish Center Hebrew School (Brooklyn, New York)
Museum of Jewish Heritage (New York City)
National Storytelling Festival (Jonesborough, Tennessee)
Open Hand Theater (Syracuse, New York)
Open Secret Bookstore (San Rafael, California)
Provincetown Playhouse (New York City)
Scandinavia House (New York City)
Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.)
Storytelling Center, Inc. of New York City
Sufi Bookstore (New York City)
Tales of Graz Storytelling Festival (Graz, Austria)
Temple Israel (Duluth, Minnesota)
Temple Shaaray Tefila (New York City)
The Theater Project (Brunswick, Maine)
Theosophical Society (London, England)
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Stony Brook (Stony Brook, New York)
Vancouver Storytelling Festival (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)