Arthur Yorinks, writer and director, The Night Kitchen Radio Theater

For thirty-five years Arthur Yorinks has written and directed for opera, theater, dance, film, and radio and is the author of over two dozen acclaimed and award-winning books for children, including the Caldecott Medal winner, Hey, Al.

In his three decades of working in the theater, Mr. Yorinks has written and directed numerous plays including So, Sue Me which premiered at The Kennedy Center and It’s Alive, premiering at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York. Mr. Yorinks was Philip Glass’s librettist for the operas The Juniper Tree and The Fall of the House of Usher, both of which have been performed all over the world. The Juniper Tree recently was seen in New York at Lincoln Center/Alice Tully Hall in a highly praised concert version by the esteemed Collegiate Chorale. In dance, Mr. Yorinks helped create a full-length dance/theater piece entitled A Selection with the renowned dance company Pilobolus. Over the years, his eclectic and wide ranging career has brought him into projects with celebrated artists from Bill Irwin to the legendary film maker Michael Powell.

In his books for children, his writings have been hailed as “one of the most distinctive prose styles in children’s literature.” Through his thirty years of picture-book making he has collaborated with such famed artists as Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Mort Drucker, David Small, and Richard Egielski. The New York Times once hailed Mr. Yorinks’s body of work as “some of the best humor to appear since Woody Allen was writing for The New Yorker.” His book, Mommy?, a New York Times bestseller, had a first printing of 500,000 copies. His latest book, published by Abrams, is The Witch's Child.

Mr. Yorinks is the founder and director of The Night Kitchen Radio Theater, and has written and directed over 20 original radio plays performed live and broadcast nationwide. He is the writer and director of the newly released A Christmas Carol, available at www.spokenwordamerica.com.

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