William Saroyan Archives

Fresno CA. William Saroyan House Museum Grand opening

August 31, 2018 By administrator

By Wally Sarkeesian

Lee Brand, the Mayor of Fresno Today we officially opened the William Saroyan House Museum. A great way to celebrate what would have been Saroyan’s 110th birthday at the house where he spent the final years of his life. This museum house will preserve the history and legacy of William Saroyan for future generations.

The grand opening of the house-museum welcomed City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria, founder of Renaissance Cultural and Intellectual foundation Artur Janibekyan and Fresno Mayor Lee Brand. Soria said Saroyan grew up in what is now downtown Fresno because of a city law that blocked immigrants from owning or living in certain areas.

Saroyan purchased the house 17 years before he died of cancer at Veterans Hospital.

The Renaissance Cultural and Intellectual Foundation, based in Armenia, purchased the house in 2015 and renovated it. Councilwoman Esmeralda Soria and Fresno Mayor Lee Brand were in attendance for the grand opening. The museum is in Soria’s district, Fresno Bee reported.

Armenia’s Ambassador to the United States Grigor Hovhannisyan was also in attendance for the inauguration.

The architect from the project Meroujan Minssian told Wally Sarkeesian Gagrule.net they wanted to design a museum that kids of all ages would like,

Meroujan Minssian said “Hologram is usually something that is fun for kids to see an actual character in actual space so that’s why we came up with the hologram thing,

William Saroyan (1908 – 1981), was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright.

The House-Museum is located at 2729 W. Griffith Way.

The museum will opens its doors to the general public in mid-September and will operate every day, except Monday, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Costa Mesa: St. Mary Cultural Committee present documentary film William Saroyan

December 3, 2017 By administrator

William Saroyan.

Sunday December 3, 2017, the St. Mary Cultural Committee will present a program about the renowned author William Saroyan. An award-winning documentary film about the life and the works of the author will be shown, and the filmmakers will be available to answer questions. The program will start at approximately 1:00 PM, after Divine Liturgy.

Renaissance Foundation buys William Saroyan’s house

February 29, 2016 By administrator

The US-based Intellectual Renaissance Foundation, owned by Artur Janibekyan, the founder of the Wikimedia Armenia project, has purchased the house residence of William Saroyan (1908-1981), the 20th century world-famous US-Armenian writer and dramatist.
In a press release, the foundation says that it intends to rebuild the construction as a house museum which will host literary events and festivals for the Armenians in the US and around the world.
The Foundation is now developing and is going to publish the house-museum’s architectural plan and activities. It asks all interested individuals to join the project by submitting their interesting and new ideas (e-mail: info@saroyanmuseum.com). “We will be happy to discuss all the proposals,” reads the press release by the foundation.
Saroyan’s private residence, based in Fresno, California, was offered for auction sale on May 4, 2015.

Library In Turkey to Be Named after William Saroyan

February 13, 2015 By administrator

A view of the eastern Turkish town of Bitlis. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

BITLIS, Turkey (Armenpress)—A library in Bitlis (Armenian: Paghesh), Turkey, will be named after the prominent Armenian-American author William Saroyan, Agos weekly reports.

Journalist and author Ahmet Tuglar, who is authoring the project, noted that the idea of opening a library first came to mind when a decision was made in December of the previous year to name one of the streets in Bitlis, now a predominantly Kurdish town, after the Armenian-American author.

Saroyan was born in Fresno, California to Armenian immigrants from Bitlis, who escaped the Armenian Genocide. At the age of three, after his father’s death, Saroyan was placed in an orphanage in Oakland, together with his brother and sister, an experience he later described in his writings. Five years later, the family reunited in Fresno, where his mother, Takoohi, secured work at a cannery. He continued his education on his own, supporting himself by taking odd jobs, before becoming a successful writer.

Street in Turkey’s Bitlis renamed in honor of William Saroyan

December 26, 2014 By administrator

The administration of Turkish town of Bitlis has finally approved a decision to rename one of the streets in honor of Armenian American writer William Saroyan.

According to Ermenihaber, the order was signed by governor Orhan Ozturk, who previously opposed the initiative, saying that Saroyan “has no connection to the town”.

Renowned writer William Saroyan was born on August 31, 1908 in Fresno, California, to Armenak and Takoohi Saroyan, Armenian immigrants from Bitlis. Saroyan wrote extensively about the Armenian immigrant life in California. Many of his stories and plays are set in his native Fresno. Some of his best-known works are The Time of Your Life, My Name Is Aram and My Heart’s in the Highlands. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film adaptation of his novel The Human Comedy.

Related links:

Ermenihaber

Turkey’s Bitlis town council renames street after William Saroyan

August 16, 2014 By administrator

The Bitlis town council has approved the renaming of five streets in this historic town in south-eastern Turkey. Among the names is “William Saroyan Street,” after the great American-Armenian writer whose ancestors came from Bitlis before 1915. Saroyan was born in Fresno but felt strong ties to his ancestral home. He visited Bitlis in 1964 and 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of that visit, Massis Post reported.

One of the champions of renaming William Saroyan Street is Barzan Serefhanoglu, whose grandfather, Adil Serefhanoglu, was the mayor of Bitlis when Saroyan visited the city. Adil Serefhanoglu showed great respect to Saroyan and paid a high price for it. After Saroyan’s departure, he was harassed by the authorities who wanted to punish him.

William Saroyan Street will now be the main street of the Sapkor district of the city, where the Saroyan family home was located. This district looks over the citadel in the city below. Many of the houses in this district still bear the dates of their construction in Armenian, Ottoman and Western numerals.

Bitlis-Co-Mayors-with-GI-Letter-and-flowers-2The Gomidas Institute congratulated the co-mayors of Bitlis, Nevin Dasdemir Dagkiran and Hüseyin Olan, as well as all members of Bitlis town council who approved the name changes unanimously.

“This was a sensitive decision,” said Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas Institute. “The people of Bitlis have expressed their pride in one of their own Armenian sons. Such sentiments could not have been expressed even a few years ago, when all positive sentiments regarding Armenians and Kurds were proscribed by the Turkish state. We have come a long way in Turkey, but there is still a long way to go.”

The other names adopted by Bitlis town council celebrate Bediüzzaman Said-i Kürdi, Kemal Fevzi, Serefhan, and Ferhat Tepe.

The renaming of William Saroyan Street is partly the result of a bridge-building operation the Gomidas Institute initiated in 2013 – before the current co-mayors and town council were even elected. The Institute’s efforts resulted in increased contacts, a public exhibition dedicated to the Armenians of Bitlis before 1915 – an exhibition which was shown in Bitlis and Fresno, California – as well as other projects still underway.

The Gomidas Institute’s work in Bitlis has been possible with the help of the Turkish Human Rights’ Association (IHD), the Bitlis Bar Association, the Armenian Studies Program at California State University (Fresno), as well as private individuals.

Nouvelles d’Arménie: Une Rue William Saroyan à Bitlis