About Us
Canadian Storytelling Day
Storytellers of Canada - Conteurs du Canada offers grants to support cross-Canada events for Canadian Storytelling Day.
CSD-JNC is a growing event supported by Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada, an opportunity to share Canadian stories, a time to gather at the turn of the year when the nights grow longer and colder, and a companion to World Storytelling Day in March. To learn more about Canadian Storytelling Day and how it started, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Questions? Contact: canadianstorytellingnight@storytellers-conteurs.ca
Canadian Storytelling Day 2023 Social Media Challenge
To celebrate CSD 2023, we had a little Social media challenge- we invited folks to submit their stories of ‘wisdom’ and drew one lucky winner to have their story featured on our website! Congrats to our Canadian Storytelling Day 2023 Social Media Challenge winner, Geneviève Marier! You can learn more about the Social Media challenge here and check out all the amazing tales on our Facebook page!
Watch Geneviève’s winning video, ‘The Antidote’ here:
https://www.facebook.com/genevievemarierconteuse/videos/704038075123516
About Geneviève:
“I have been telling for a long time. I am seeking in storytelling every path that enables heart to heart connection: nature and form of the story, body mobility and voice resonance, surprising laughter and shared emotion. Telling a story is my favorite way to take part in life. Mainly in Quebec province, occasionally elsewhere in the world. I have a strong interest in how voice and body work nourish scenic presence. It is the core of the workshops that I give in Quebec and abroad since 2012. I am doing cultural mediation with storytelling for children, teenagers, adults and elders. Among others in literacy and francisation contexts, as well as in mental health resources. A good way to give and to receive sense and meaning.”
Make sure to check out Geneviève’s website: https://www.genevievemarier.com/ and follow her Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/genevievemarierconteuse/
Geneviève would also like to promote an abstract of her video ‘Le retour de la reine, from her last Storytelling collection. Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/866614670/53742cb7ab
Canadian Storytelling Day Theme
Over the years, themes for Canadian Storytelling Day have included Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Animals, and Tall Tales (Humour). These Indigenous-inspired themes have provided opportunities to tell stories from our own traditions that also share these ideas and elements. Starting in 2022, we will explore all seven Teachings, one at a time. In the eighth year, there will be a final theme of Unity because although each quality is important, it takes all to form a well-rounded person. These teachings are taught to children through storytelling and reinforced throughout their lives by these set examples of stories taught to them by their Elders.
Click here to read the full announcement about the Canadian Storytelling Day themes.
History of Canadian Storytelling Day
Begun in Orillia, Ontario in 2012, Canadian Storytelling Day was celebrated in 2016 by more than a dozen events across the country, from Victoria to Halifax! Canadian Storytelling Day is held annually during the first week of November. Small grants are available from SC-CC to applicants organizing events for Canadian Storytelling Day. Hold a Canadian Storytelling Day in your community. Join a national event, and promote storytelling close to home. At the end of 2019, the Canadian Storytelling Committee decided to change the name of the event to Canadian Storytelling Day, to clarify that this is an event that could take place in schools or libraries for children, as well as in a concert format for adult audiences. In 2020, the committee introduced “A Story for All”, a story reflecting the theme, that all one story that all tellers and guilds could tell if they wished at their event. The criteria were a 10-minute story, appropriate to the theme and suitable for a general audience.
Past Events
CSD 2023: Theme: ‘Grandfather Teaching - Wisdom’ Social Media Challenge. Congrats to our challenge winner, Geneviève Marier! Learn more about Geneviève and her winning story here.
CSD 2022: Theme ‘Grandfather Teaching - Humility’
CSD 2021: SC-CC did not distribute grants in 2021, however we did host a national storytelling concert with the year’s theme ““Raising Spirits ~ Tales to Cheer and Inspire”. Learn more about that concert here.
Congratulations to Rachel Dunstan Muller of Nanaimo and The Around Town Tellers for her successful submission to our 2021 Story for All contest. Hear Rachel tell “Grace and the Banshee” here. Click here to hear the story told in French by FX Liagre, as translated by Julie Turconi.
CSD 2020: Canadian Storytelling Day grants to assist in presenting an event were awarded to Storytelling Alberta and Jeffery Canton.
CSD 2019: Canadian Storytelling Day grants to assist in presenting an event were awarded to Storytelling Alberta, Durham Storytellers, Around Town Tellers, Sage Tyrtle, and Storytelling Orillia.
CSD 2018: November 3rd 2018 was the 7th Canadian Storytelling Night! This year's theme was Running Deep - The Power of Water. SC-CC is pleased to announce that in 2018 we awarded event funding assistance to Saskatoon Storytellers' Guild (contact is Danica Lorer), Deborah Dunleavy in Brockville, Ontario, Storytelling Orillia (contact is Susan Charters) and Cambridge, Ontario's Fresh Stories (contact is Carol Leigh Wehking)
CSD 2017: 2017's Canadian Storytelling Night was held November 4th, with the theme Feed the Fires - Stories to Warm Us. SC-CC is pleased to announce that event funding assistance was provided to the Nelson Storytelling Guild, TALES Calgary, the Saskatoon Storytelling Guild, Storytelling Orillia, and Toronto'sYork Storytelling Guild.