Grief in finding it broken, joy in the beauty of each new piece.

“William’s Law”

William Michaelian is an American writer, artist, and poet. His newest book is the Tenth Anniversary Authorized Print Edition of his first novel, A Listening Thing. His Author’s Press Series now contains three volumes: The Painting of You, No Time to Cut My Hair, and One Hand Clapping. Two poetry collections, Winter Poems and Another Song I Know, were published in 2007 by Cosmopsis Books.

Michaelian’s stories, poems, and drawings have appeared widely in print and online. He also writes a blog, Recently Banned Literature. His work has been translated into Armenian, published in Armenia’s leading anthologies and literary periodicals, and read on Armenian National Radio. One of his drawings is included in a William Saroyan centennial edition published by Heyday Books in 2008. He has several more books and a chapbook forthcoming. The author and his wife live near their family in Salem, Oregon.

Titles in Print

A Listening Thing (2011)
Primitive: Selected Drawings in Pixel, Pencil & Pen (2010)
The Thing About Strawberries: 31 Dreams (2010)
One Hand Clapping (2010)
No Time to Cut My Hair (2009)
The Painting of You (2009)
Winter Poems (2007)
Another Song I Know (2007)
The Old Language (Armenian, 2005)
A Map of My Heart (Armenian, 2004)
Among the Living and Other Stories (2000)

From Cosmopsis Books

A Listening Thing

Tenth Anniversary Authorized Print Edition

With new Preface & Afterword by the Author,
Extensive New Interview & Materials
from the Original Unpublished
& Online Editions

ISBN: 978-0-9796599-3-5
US $18.00 at Cosmopsis Books
232 pages. 6x9. Paper. (2011)

Order

The first printing of this special edition is limited to 150 hand-numbered copies.
A Listening Thing is printed on archival, acid-free, FSC certified recycled natural paper, with a beautiful matte cover.

“A wonderful book full of heart and common sense.... These are real relationships and real concerns. Even the minor characters sing to us as they do to Stephen. The truck drivers, panhandlers, gas station attendants, and print shop owners all trying to exist as best they can, while the specter of limited funds pushes them on.... A must read for anyone.”

— Brent Allard, via Goodreads

“As I enter mid-life and realize there are fewer days ahead than there are behind, I find deep resonance with Stephen Monroe, the central character of A Listening Thing: regrets, mistakes, and like all of William’s work, a profound sense of the beauty of life and the hope intrinsic in each new year, each new day. The book is wise and sad and joyful like its creator.”

— Paul L. Martin, via The Teacher’s View

“A profound vision of the inner life ... Some of the most resonant accounts of dreams in recent literature ... Some of the funniest, most acerbic rants about American society and values in recent literature ... essentially a meditation on loneliness, it is profoundly American ... compellingly human: we never doubt that narrator is telling us the truth. In a society awash every day in public lies, it’s refreshing to realize that honest expression is still possible.”

— Joseph Hutchison, via The Perpetual Bird

“William, the more I think about it — and I have been, ever since I finished reading your book — it seems that what made your book such a good read for me was that it did not feel like reading at all. It did not feel as if I had been handed a collection of well-chosen words sent to me with the task of conveying certain ideas or emotions, however admirably they discharged this duty, and it was up to me to receive them and judge them. It wasn’t even as if you and I were having a conversation across time and space. It felt as if you and I and countless others were sitting together in that moment after the laughter from a really wicked and wise joke has just faded into silence. And then without a word, glasses are raised.”

— Gabriella Mirollo, via Recently Banned Literature