Gary Gach

Gary Gach
File:Gach in 2009.jpg
Born	(1947-11-30) November 30, 1947 Hollywood, California, USA
Occupation	Writer translator editor teacher
Nationality	American

Gary Gregory Gach (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, translator, editor, teacher and poet living on Russian Hill, San Francisco. His work has been translated into several languages, and has appeared in several anthologies and numerous periodicals. He serves on the International Advisory Panel of the Buddhist Channel, a Malaysian Buddhist news website. He currently hosts Haiku Corner for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Life

Gach was born to a Jewish family in Hollywood, Los Angeles in 1947. He was student body president of John Burroughs Junior High School. He claims to have had a mystic vision at the age of 6. At 11, he read The Way of Zen by Alan Watts, beginning a lifelong interest in Buddhism.

He was formally introduced to meditation by Paul Reps and later studied Hasidic Judaism and Kabbalah, and was introduced to shikantaza by Dainin Katagiri Roshi.

He has worked as an actor, stevedore, typographer, legal secretary, editor-in-chief, webmaster, and teacher (most frequently of late, Stanford Continuing Studies). Besides Buddhism, he teaches haiku, and mentors in English composition (most recently for doctoral students at Sofia University (California).

Bibliography

Author

• 1974: Preparing the Ground : Poems 1960-1970 (Heirs, International; San Francisco)
• 1996: The Pocket Guide to the Internet: No-Sweat Guide to the Information Highway (Pocket Books; New York) ISBN 0-671-56850-7
• 1997: Writers.net: Every Writer's Essential Guide to Online Resources and Opportunities (Prima Publishing; Rocklin, New York) ISBN 0-7615-0641-1
• 2001–2009: Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism (Alpha Books, New York) ISBN 0-02-864170-1; 2nd edition, 2004 - ISBN 1592572774; 3rd edition, 2009 - ISBN 1592579116.
• 2018: Pause Breathe Smile – Awakening Mindfulness When Meditation Is Not Enough (Sounds True, Colorado) ISBN 1683641752

Translator

• 2005: (Co-translator with Brother Anthony (Taizé Community) and Kim Young-moo) Ten Thousand Lives by Ko Un, introduction by Robert Hass, (Green Integer: Los Angeles) ISBN 1-933382-06-6
• 2006: (Co-translator with Brother Anthony and Kim Young-moo) Flowers of a Moment, 185 brief poems by Ko Un; (BOA Editions, Ltd.: Rochester, New York) ISBN 1-929918-88-7
• 2007: (Co-translator with Brother Anthony Of Taizé and Kim Young-moo) Songs for Tomorrow: Poems 1961-2001 by Ko Un (Green Integer: Los Angeles) ISBN 978-1-933382-70-8

Editor

• 1998: What Book!? : Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop, introduction by Peter Coyote (Parallax Press; Albany, California) ISBN 0-938077-92-9 (American Book Award)

Awards

Gach is a recipient of an American Book Award (from the Before Columbus Foundation) in 1999 for What Book!? Shortlisted for Northern California Book Award for Translation, for Songs for Tomorrow and finalist for Flowers of a Moment (Lannan Translations Selection). Nautilus Book Awards for Complete Idiot's Guide to Buddhism 3rd ed'n.

External links

• Author page
• Gach's personal home page
• Teachings of the Buddha – interview by Marjorie Chiew, The Star (Malaysia), (December 12, 2010)
• Interview with Gach at Writers Write (August 1997)
• Buddhist Wisdom for Uncertain Times Presentation of Complete Idiot's Guide to Buddhism at Book Passage, Corte Madera.] (Video from FORA.tv)
• Materials on file at Internet Archive.