Michael Kerins was born to tell stories – he learned from his blind father, whose gift for oral communication was immense. He is the sixth generation of storytellers in his family. Born and bred in Glasgow, of Glasgow born parents, Michael is a master storyteller and a multi award winner. These include the “all Scotland TALL TALES Storytelling Oscar 2008″ and  “Aye Write Tall Tales Oscar 2010.″ One of his most famous characters is weetom, whose adventures land him in many situations which are fun, exciting and encourage children to get involved. Michael has founded or co-founded various projects in Scotland and across the world, such as the Better Crack Club (Glasgow’s oldest storytelling club) and the Even Better Crack Club (Glasgow’s oldest storytelling club for children of all ages). Kerins is the founder of the S.L.A.T.E Charity (Scotland Language Action Towards Education). He set up “CEO Mother Tongue” in 2002 and the international translation competition “Kerinsnaumov” in 2015. Kerins collaborates with storytellers all over the world, for example during the festival Ananse Sound Splash, in Jamaica, where storytellers from Jamaica, Haiti, UK, USA and South Africa gathered to reinforce a cultural tradition of storytelling on the theme of “Tell it for Haiti.” In 2014 he founded the 27 word microstory project “Lermontov 200” dedicated to 200th anniversary of Mikhail Lermontov, who had Scottish roots.