Diane Wolkstein

As New York's official storyteller beginning in 1967,[2] Wolkstein visited two of the city's parks each weekday, staging hundreds of one-woman storytelling events.[1] After successfully talking her way into the position, she realized "there was no margin for error," she said in a 1992 interview. "I mean, it was a park. [The children would] just go somewhere else if they didn't like it."[1]

She also had a radio show on WNYC, Stories From Many Lands, from 1968 until 1980, and she helped create the Storytelling Center of New York City.[1]

Wolkstein authored two dozen books, primarily collections of folk tales and legends she gathered during research trips. She made many visits to China, Haiti and Africa.[1] She collaborated with Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer to translate Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, the story of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of fertility, love, and war.[3]

The Library of Congress houses an archive of Wolkstein's photographs, performance events and productions, interviews, and other materials.[3][2]

Wolkstein was born in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her father Henry was an accountant and her mother Ruth was a librarian. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a master's degree in education from Bank Street College of Education.[1] While living in Paris, she studied mime under Étienne Decroux.[1] She had a daughter, Rachel Zucker.[2]

Wolkstein was in Taiwan to research a book of Chinese folk stories when she underwent emergency surgery for a heart condition. She died in the city of Kaohsiung at the age of 70.[1]