Richard
Modiano
art by tatiana tulskaya
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Richard Modiano was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles, California suburb) of Jewish-Irish parents (and later nurtured by Japanese stepmother). One younger brother, a gay activist, now deceased, inspired his commitment to human rights.
At the University of Hawaii, he became an anti-war activist and read poet Gary Snyder's essay "Buddhism and Anarchism," and then was turned on to Paul Goodman poet/novelist/psychotherapist/anarchist. Richard later joined New York City Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World while attending NYU (presently a member of the Socialist Party USA and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship but still is anarcho-syndicalist in outlook).
The 1980s deepened Richard's interest in Japanese aesthetics and learned Japanese language; he became the consultant-editor for Subterranean Press. In the early '90s, he started translating from Japanese to English, and wrote more terse Japanese-influenced pieces. Translations and original works were published here and there in Blue Satellite , FTS , and Sun Flowers & Locomotives.
Richard has written reviews and politics column for the The Independent Reviews Site and is presently a co-director of Poets on the Half Shell, as well as a member of the board of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, in Venice, California. His day job is program manager for a small Korean educational institute.
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