Despite attempts to earn a living at farming, fishing, truck driving, advertising, and dishwashing, William Papas has never been able to stop drawing and has always returned to an artistic vocation. His illustrations, cartoons, and reportage have appeared in many newspapers and magazines, and he has also worked on several books for adults and children. He now spends much of his time traveling with his wife, Tessa, looking for material for new paintings and projects.
Role: Author
William Saroyan
William Saroyan was a celebrated American author whose vibrant stories celebrated optimism in the middle of trials and difficulties of the Depression-era. Deeply influenced by his Armenian-American heritage, he worked tirelessly to perfect a prose style that was full of zest for life and was seemingly impressionistic, a unique voice that ultimately became known as Saroyanesque. Several of Saroyan’s works, including his breakthrough collection The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and his famous novel The Human Comedy, were drawn from his own experiences, although his approach to autobiographical facts can be called poetic. He viewed writing and living as inseparable, famously advising a young writer to try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when eating, and when sleeping really to sleep, urging them to try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all their might, and when they laugh, to laugh like hell.
William Shakespeare
William Steig
William Steig, who lived from 1907 to 2003, was a celebrated American cartoonist, illustrator, and children’s book author best known for creating Shrek!, which inspired the famous movie franchise. Born in Brooklyn to Austrian-Jewish immigrants, he grew up in an artistic household and initially built a legendary seven-decade career drawing over 1,600 cartoons and 122 covers for The New Yorker starting during the Great Depression. At the age of 61, he pivoted to children’s literature, publishing over 30 beloved books characterized by rich vocabulary and expressive animal characters. His masterful storytelling earned him high praise and major literary awards, including the Caldecott Medal for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and Newbery Honors for both Abel’s Island and Doctor De Soto.
Y. T. Nercessian
Wahi Kachichyan
Walter Bandazian
Walter Bandazian was born in Brooklyn, NY, and bought up in Philadelphia, Pa. He was assistant professor of history and government at Beaver College (1967-1972); Dean of Haigazian College in Beirut, Lebanon (1972-1975); and executive-director of Karagheusian Foundation (1975-2014).