Janice Del Negro

Janice M. Del Negro, PhD, is a Professor at the School of Information Studies at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. As Senior Youth Services faculty and Director of the Master of Arts in Youth Literature program, Del Negro teaches all things youth literature related, including Materials for Young Adults, History of Children’s Literature, Storytelling, Book Reviewing and Publishing for Children and Young Adults, The Fantasy Tradition in Children’s Literature, and other related courses. Professor Del Negro is on the advisory board of the Butler Center for Children’s Literature at Dominican University, previous holder of the Follett Chair in Library and Information Science, and a senior board member of storytelling.org/Illinois Storytelling, Inc.  She has served on the Newbery, Caldecott, Wilder, and Lee Bennett Hopkins Awards committees, and has spoken on book reviewing, storytelling, and literature for youth in a variety of settings, including the University of Chicago, the National Storytelling Conference, the Illinois Library Association, the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the University of Illinois Youth Literature Festival, the Tejas Storytelling Festival, and many other celebratory events. Her book, Folktales Aloud: Practical Advice for Playful Storytelling, was awarded a Storytelling World Resource Award in 2015. Her subsequent title, Engaging Teens with Story: How to Inspire and Educate Youth with Storytelling (With Melanie Kimball, PhD, 2017) was named SLC/ARBA’s “Best Professional Resource for School or Youth Librarians.”  Her most recent publication is the fifth edition of the classic storytelling text, Storytelling Art & Technique (ABC/CLIO, 2021) which received the 2022 Storytelling World Resource Award. In 2017 Del Negro received the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award “presented to artists who are recognized by their peers to be master storytellers who set the standards for excellence and have demonstrated, over a significant period of time, a commitment and dedication to the art of storytelling.” Del Negro has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Fox Valley Folk Festival, and many others. A coach and workshop leader, she is also the host of storytelling.org/ISI’s monthly virtual open mic, Traditions and Truth, and with Megan Wells produces MoonShine Stories, an online storytelling event held each month on the full moon.

Dr. Del Negro’s research focus is on public library history, the history of youth services in public libraries, children’s book publishing, folk and fairy tales, women in folk and fairy tales, and storytelling. In 2024 Dr. Del Negro received the Oracle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Storytelling Network. The Oracle Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals in the storytelling community who have dedicated their lives to the art form of storytelling and who have demonstrated meritorious service to the National Storytelling Network, as well as to the community of storytellers at large. Recipients are those who have expanded public awareness of the art of storytelling by virtue of their preservation of traditional art forms or the significant originality of their body of work.