Starting from San Francisco: A Life in Writing (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781544200590)

Kherdian was born in Racine, Wisconsin, the site of his 13 volume Root River Cycle. In addition to his poetry, biographies, novels, and memoirs, his translations and retellings have included the Asian classic Monkey: A Journey to the West, and the soon to be released 9th century Armenian bardic epic, David of Sassoun. He has also written a narrative life of The Buddha. As an editor he has produced two seminal anthologies: Settling America: The Ethnic Expression of 14 Contemporary American Poets, and Down at the Santa Fe Depot: 20 Fresno Poets, which inspired over 100 city and state anthologies. His biography of his mother, The Road From Home, his best known work, has been continuously in print in various editions and 17 translations, since its publication in 1979. An hour long documentary on his poetry, by New York independent filmmaker, Jim Belleau, was released in 1997. He is married to two-time Caldecott Award winner, Nonny Hogrogian, with whom he has collaborated on a number of children's book, and also on three journals, Ararat, Forkroads: A Journal of EthnicAmerican Literature, and Stopinder: A Gurdjieff Journal for Our Time. Starting from San Francisco traces Kherdian's writing apprenticeship, as revealed in part by the patterns that have directed his life, which patterns exist in all of us, but are not easy to discern. Kherdian's goal from the beginning was to work for self-change, which he learned early on could only be attained through self-knowledge and spiritual awakening. This is the quest that has directed his life and his writing which are one.