Patrick Ryan is a storyteller and educator who works in schools, libraries, arts centres and festivals all over Ireland and the UK, and across Europe and America. A former Research Fellow at the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling, he was writer-in-residence at University of Manitoba’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture, developed Good Books Good Companions (an online children’s book project with Irish libraries), and has led innovative storytelling projects (including Kick into Reading, which trained professional footballers as storytellers) and children's literature courses for librarians and teachers.

Publications include:

• Articles on storytelling, folklore, and literacy

• SHAKESPEARE'S STORYBOOK, which won an Aesop Accolade from the American Folklore Society

• And, with Donna Schatt, STORY LISTENING & EXPERIENCE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD, which was joint runner-up for the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Award.

• Academic articles, book reviews, and interviews for various journals, including FOLKLORE, BOOK 2.0, and STORYTELLING SELF AND SOCIETY

• Contributions to various anthologies including TIME FOR TELLING (Kingfisher), THE VIRAGO BOOK OF WITCHES and A FESTIVAL OF STORIES (Mallinson Press),

• Research and copy for television and radio (BBC and RTE), Research Consultant on Tellytubbies and British and Irish Myths and Legends for the Discovery Channel.

• Various consultancy' publications for the Irish Arts Council, the Verbal Arts Centre, The George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling, and IBBY Ireland:

--STORYTELLING IN IRELAND: A REAWAKENING 1994 study on the state of storytelling across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland with recommendations that resulted in the creation of Storytellers of Ireland

--WORD IN ACTION. Report by Patrick Ryan, outlining a project and results of a storytelling residency with Ryan, working in 6 disadvantaged secondary schools in N.Ireland. Published by the Verbal Arts Centre, Derry, N. Ireland.

--LISTEN UP!  Video, produced by the Nerve Centre, documenting a major project in N.Ireland involving two storytellers (Patrick Ryan and Liz Weir) in 17 schools, available through The Verbal Arts Cenre, Derry, N.Ireland.

--EXPANDING THE FRAME, Video and published document, produced by Helen East, outlining the work done by 4 storytellers (including myself) developing materials and training and supporting teachers so as to use oral storytelling in implementing the literacy hour.

--STILL SPELL-BOUND: STORY TIMES IN WELSH MUSEUMS, ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES / DAL CYFAREDDU: CHWEDL TRO YM CYMREIG AMGUEDDFA, ARCHIF, A LLYFRGELL, a study on the state of storytelling in Welsh libraries, museums and archives.

--BRANCHING OUT, storytelling and environmentalism, research, story collecting, and bibliography for a project at the Storytelling Academy at Loughborough University