Gary Gach
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.
Bibliography
Author
- 1971: (Co-author with Jim Williams) Poetry Reading (Massive Graphite)
- 1974: Preparing the Ground : Poems 1960-1970 (Heirs, International; San Francisco)
- 1980: Severe winter dissolves at the welcome (Self-published)
- 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: Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism (Alpha Books, New York) ISBN 0-02-864170-1
Translator
- 2005: (Co-translator with Brother Anthony Of Taizé 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 Of Taizé and Kim Young-moo) Flowers of a Moment, 185 brief poems by Ko Un; (Rochester, New York) ISBN 1-929918-88-7
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 in 1999 for What Book!?.
