Donna Washington – Storyteller
Professional author, storyteller and multicultural folklorist, Donna Washington has been featured at hundreds of festivals and thousands of schools, libraries, theaters and other venues around the world, including Canada, Peru, Argentina and Hong Kong. A multiple-award winning artist with nine CD\’s, she presents stories for audiences as young as four and for families and adults of all ages.
She received a Parent\’s Choice Award for her first independent recording Live and Learn: The Exploding Frog and Other Stories. The ALA Booklist gave Donna\’s second CD, A Little Shiver, a recommended review. It also won the Parents\’ Choice Silver Honor Award and Storytelling World Honors. Her third CD Fun, Foolery, and Folktales also won the Parents\’ Choice Silver Honor Award and Storytelling World Honors. Her fourth CD The Sword and The Rose won an iParenting Media Excellent Product Award, a Parents\’ Choice Silver Honor Award and a Storytelling World Award. All of her CDs have won Children\’s Music Web Awards.
Her first writing project was an anthology, A Pride of African Tales was illustrated Award winning artist, James Ransome. The book received rave reviews from the American Library Association (ALA) Booklist and the School Library Journal. A Pride of African Tales has been nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Reader\’s Choice Award. Donna\’s second book, The Story of Kwanzaa, is a wonderful primer for children about the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa. Donna\’s third book, A Big Spooky House, is a wonderful book to read aloud at Halloween. Her next book will be entitled Li\’l Rabbit\’s Kwanzaa and will be published by HarperCollins Children\’s Books.
She has been featured at numerous storytelling festivals including the National Storytelling Festival, the Illinois Storytelling Festival, the Three Rivers Festival, the St. Louis Storytelling Festival, the NC StoryFest, the Corn Island and Cave Run Festivals in KY, and the Broward County Children\’s & Ocala Storytelling Festivals in FL- just to name a few.
She also offers workshops in storytelling, writing, education, and creative drama for librarians and educators as well. Some of her recent workshops venues include the National Storytellers Conference, Forsyth School Media Association, US Army Corps of Engineers, North Carolina Library Association Conference, Virginia Library Association Conference, Georgia Council of Media Organizations Conference, South Carolina Library Association Conference, National Storytelling Conference, International Reading Association Conference, Mary Lois Staton Conference at ECU, and keynote speaker & presenter at the North Carolina Elementary Educators Conference among others.
