Arthur Yorinks

Arthur Yorinks (born August 21, 1953) is an American author, playwright and director. He is best known for writing Hey, Al, which won a Caldecott Medal.

Early life Arthur Yorinks was born on August 21, 1953, in Roslyn, New York. He was raised in a suburban area of the village. His father, Alexander, was a mechanical engineer and his mother, Shirley, was a fashion illustrator. His aunt was also a piano teacher and his friend an illustrator and Yorinks considers this artistic childhood as an important inspiration for his later career. When he was six, he started to practice to be a classical pianist. His piano teacher, Robert Bedford, influenced him and is credited with instilling in him both perfectionism and a professionalism.

Yorinks wrote librettos for operas, such as The Juniper Tree by Philip Glass and Robert Moran in 1985 and The Fall of the House of Usher, composed by Glass in 1988.

In 2014 New York Public Radio commissioned Yorinks to create a 4 hour audio play adaptation of James Joyce's Dubliners entitled Dubliners: A Quartet. In 2018 Sendak's Presto and Zesto In Limboland was published posthumously, in which Yorinks was writer. In 2019 he appeared in season 5, episode 8 of the PBS show Articulate.

In February 2020 Yorinks published One Mean Ant, the sequel One Mean Ant with Fly and Flea was published in October 2020. He released the third book in the series One Mean Ant with Fly and Flea and Moth in October 2021. In October 2024, Yorinks left AMT and founded and became artistic director of APT, American Physical Theater, a performing company comprising a unique blend of acting, movement, voice, silence, sound and theatrical visual elements. Its premiere production, The Lifeboat was performed at Harlem Stage in March 2025.

Selected works Books

Sid and Sol (illustrated by Richard Egielski), New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1977. A Christmas Carol The Rat Race Metamorphosis