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Welcome to the William Saroyan Society, celebrating the Centennial of William Saroyan’s birth in 2008. We hope our site will support your interest and research into the life and work William Saroyan.As you tour our site, we hope you will contact us with your requests for information and suggestions.
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Society Centennial Events
The William Saroyan Society announces the winners of the Centennial Edition of the Story Writing Contest. This is the 24th year of the contest.
William Saroyan Centennial Prizes for Fiction, Non-fiction & Drama
The William Saroyan Society with the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project will conduct a competition for adult writers. Submittals will be accepted in the categories of Fiction, Non-fiction and Drama until March 15, 2008. See “detailed guidelines”
Saroyan Town Walk
The Walk will be held on April 19, 2008 beginning at the William Saroyan Theater, Inyo and M Streets at 9:30 a.m. The Walk will take you on a tour of the area in downtown Fresno in which William Saroyan lived during his early years and will present information on his early life and times. A tour of the lobby of the Saroyan Theater and of the sanctuary of Holy Trinity Apostolic Church will be included.
Saroyan Bicycle Ride
The Ride is sponsored jointly by the San Joaquin River Parkway and the William Saroyan Society. Registration is through the Parkway. The ride begins at the Coke Hallowell Center for River Studies at Riverview Ranch on March 29, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. The bike ride will take you along the Eaton trail from Riverview Ranch to Woodward Park following a luncheon and then returns to the Ranch.
During the ride, readings from the works of William Saroyan will be led by John Kallenberg, Chairman of the William Saroyan Society. See reservations.riverparkway.org/
Saroyan’s Birthday Party at Saroyan Elementary
On August 29, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. a celebration will occur to honor the birth of William Saroyan at the elementary school named in his honor and memory located at 5850 West Escalon Avenue in Fresno. The event is open only to the students of the school who will be celebrating with the community the 100th anniversary of the birth of our award winning author and playwright.
The William Saroyan Elementary School is a part of Central Unified School District, the third largest school district in Fresno County serving over 14,000 students.
Saroyan Award at the Young Writers’ Conference
This writers’ conference is designed for area high school students. The Conference is sponsored by the Department of English, College of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Fresno. The conference and the award presentation will be held on March 26, 2008 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Department of English and the College of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Fresno hosts each spring the Young Writers’ Conference for area high school students.
This conference provides a valuable opportunity for young writers to hear a professional writer read and answer questions about the creative process. It also provides an opportunity for their writing to be judged in the same manner as any adult writer. The William Saroyan Society sponsors the William Saroyan Award to a young writer.
Contact Person: Tanya Nichols, Event Coordinator at 559-278-2553 or email at tanichols@csufresno.edu or for more information visit http://csufresno.edu/ crwr/15ywc.htm.
Adventures with Saroyan
On May 14 2008, reminisce with Brenda Najimian Magarity as she speaks of the time in her life driving Saroyan around Fresno in the 1970s. The program begins at 7:00 p.m. River Room Woodward Park Regional Library . This event is co-sponsored with the Fresno County Public Library.
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Saroyan Around the Country
Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice,CA., Southern California's most acclaimed resident theatre company, is staging Williams Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life."
This twentieth century masterwork is a profound, richly comic, touching, and timely examination of man's ability to improve the human condition. This not-to-be-missed production runs March 22 - June 1, 2008.
Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm. Call (310) 822-8392 for tickets and group reservations. www.PacificResidentTheatre.com
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For the most complete listing of all events held during the Centennial, visit www.saroyancentennial.org. |
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The William Saroyan Society is now accepting contributions for the year 2008. Our organization relies on the support we receive from our community. If you wish make a contribution, please fill out the form by clicking on the link provided.
Your contributions and support are greatly appreciated.
Support Form 2008
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. . . the place of transport, of take-off, of travel, became the Public Library, where stuff from all over the country came every day and week and month: newspapers, magazines,, an d books. I sampled them all.
I browsed among the floor-to-ceiling rows of books for hours, reading around in perhaps forty or more books before the used-up air of the place, and the narrowness of the aisles between the rows, and the stuff in the books, drove me aback out into the streets, which suddenly seemed alive with stuff better than stuff in books—the bread and union and water of intelligence itself.
From "Places Where I’ve Done Time", p. 44.
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Photo courtesy of
Dickran Kouymjian.
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