Dan Bar-el grew up near London, Ontario. He trained at Ryerson Theatre School and has worked as an actor in Toronto and performed comedy across Canada. He has organized poetry events in Vancouver and worked with children as a childcare worker, preschool teacher and storyteller. His first book is aimed for ages seven to eleven. Bar-el has contributed to an anthology, World of Stories (Gumboot Books, 2008) and he has travelled across Canada visiting schools and libraries as an author and as a storyteller.

When a cow named Audrey learns she could be headed to the slaughterhouse, she goes AWOL from Bittersweet Pastures in Dan Bar-el's amusing and heartfelt Audrey (cow). Her farmyard getaway adventure is narrated by thirty voices, as if the tale of Audrey's escape is an extended news story. We follow her fate with commentaries by six humans, four cows, three sheep, two sheep dogs, one pig and a silly rooster. Back in 2002, Bar-el read a news item about a thousand-pound Charolais cow that escaped from a slaughterhouse in Cincinnati by jumping over a six-foot fence. It avoided capture for eleven days, providing inspiration for Bar-el's story. The cow was dubbed Cincinnati Freedom and given the key to the city. Its notoriety prevented her death. She lived the rest of her days at an animal sanctuary in New York.

Dan Bar-el is married to goldsmith Dominque Bréchault.

CITY/TOWN: Vancouver

PLACE OF BIRTH: Edmonton, Alberta

ARRIVAL IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: 1992

EMPLOYMENT OTHER THAN WRITING: Preschool teacher

AWARDS: Silver Birch Express Award 2008

BOOKS:

Things are Looking Up, Jack (Orca, 2003) ISBN 1-55143-278-1
Things are Looking Grimm, Jill (Orca, 2006). 1-55143-400-8
Alphabetter (Orca, 2006)
Such a Prince (Clarion Books, 2007)
Not Your Typical Dragon (Viking 2013). Illustrated by Tim Bowers
A Fish Named Glub - illustrated by Jose Bisaillon (Kids Can 2014) $16.95 9781554538126
Audrey (cow) (Tundra Books 2014) $21.99 978-1-77049-602-6 Illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss
It's Great Being a Dad (Tundra Books 2016) $22.99 978-1-77049-605-7

[BCBW 2016] "Kidlit"