Published American Book Author since 1991.
Born in Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Education: Scholarship Graduate from the University of Iowa & State University of New York.
AUTHOR MARTIN TARAGANO
Martin Taragano ("Tara-ga-no") is a highly accomplished author with a diverse body of work. Mr. Taragano is an award-nominated literary/upmarket novelist and multiple creative writing, fellowship-winning short story writer, novelist, poet, biographer, essayist, belletrist, journalist, book reviewer, literary and film critic, sportswriter, and statistician. In addition to being a traditionally published author myriad times, Martin Taragano was also a nationally certified personal fitness trainer and nutritionist.
Mr. Taragano first gained national attention for his writing talents as a published author as a 19-year-old university student when he was first published in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED many years ago.
LIFE
Martin Taragano was born in Manhattan, New York in the United States. He grew up in the Bronx, NY on Jerome Avenue and in Rockland County, NY in the town of Bardonia in a single-family house located on Cornell Drive. After two years of study at the State University of New York , Mr. Taragano moved around the country as an emerging fictionist, poet and nonfiction author residing variously in Wurtsboro, NY, Mt. Pocono, PA, New City, NY, Wayne, NJ, Valley Cottage, NY, Palm Coast, FL and then returned to the East. While engaged in a grueling writing apprenticeship, Mr. Taragano wrote ten consecutive practice novels and hundreds of poems from the 1990s onwards as he honed his fictional prose and verse writing crafts, while struggling with a multitude of mental and physical health issues, learning from his mistakes slowly but surely. While in his thirties, Mr. Taragano finished his formal education on scholarship at the University of Iowa where he received his degree in creative writing.
MARTIN TARAGANO'S NEWEST BOOKS
His newest books are THE HUMAN OVEN, an upmarket, award-nominated novel, as well as the suspense thriller novel RUNAWAY TANK (please see below for more about his new titles). Mr. Taragano wrote the major revision and final draft of THE HUMAN OVEN while living in a small town in the Eastern states after writing previous novel manuscript drafts in New York and Florida. THE HUMAN OVEN is a literary whodunit about a grieving mother's search for her blind daughter's attacker spiced with terror and tragedy. RUNAWAY TANK is a stunning thriller with the most terrifying villain in contemporary fiction.
ACADEMIC DEGREES
*BLS, Creative Writing, University of Iowa, 1998
*AA, State University of New York, 1979
*Accepted to Columbia University's Creative Writing Program, 1996
AUTODIDACTIC DEGREES
*MFA, Creative Writing, 2000
*MA, Comparative Literature, 2003
WRITING FELLOWSHIPS
*Bennington University, 1997
*Wesleyan University, 1997
*Vermont Studio Center, 1998
*Provincetown Fine Arts Center, 1998
WRITING GRANTS
*PEN American
*The Carnegie Fund
*The Author's Guild
*The American Society of Journalists and Authors
WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE HONORS
*European Writing Program, Chateau de Lesvault, Onlay, France
*Skidmore College, The New York State Writer's Institute
*The Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony
*Dickinson College, The Cumberland Valley Fiction Workshop
MR. TARAGANO'S WRITING HAS APPEARED IN:
*The South Carolina Review
*Sports Illustrated
*The Avocet
*Travel Review
*Listen
*Samsara
*Liquid Ohio
*And many others
GENESIS OF HIS AUTHORSHIP CAREER
Mr. Taragano engaged in a grueling, creative writing autodidactic apprenticeship working 17 hours a day, seven days a week, for many years to learn how to write traditionally-publishable-caliber novels and poetry. Mr. Taragano also spent ten years as a sports writing journalist for Listen magazine publishing dozens of celebrity profiles for feature cover articles for the periodical. During that time his first two traditionally published nonfiction books received national critical acclaim in Publisher's Weekly, VOYA, Reference Book World, and Library Journal, among other national literary periodicals.
EDUCATION
Mr. Taragano was accepted to Columbia University's creative writing program in the late 1990s but chose to pursue training as a novelist and poet as a scholarship recipient at the University of Iowa. After graduating Iowa with his degree in creative writing he never felt that a formal academic master's degree was the right fit for him, so he pursued and obtained his advanced andragogy with an autodidactic MFA in creative writing and an MA in comparative literature.
MARTIN TARAGANO'S WRITING HABITS
Mr. Taragano finds it impossible to write in complete silence, so he always listens to loud TV while simultaneously writing his fictional books and poetry as that's how he concentrates best. His creative writing output alternates between 16 hour writing days seven days a week and 4 hour writing days five days a week. He wakes up between 3:00 am-4:00 am seven days a week.
EARLY LIFE
Mr. Taragano was the first of two children to Goodwin Taragano and Helene Toledo. Born in Manhattan, NY, as a young child, he spent nearly a year in a leg cast and foot brace due to severe clubfoot. His parents divorced when he was two. At age three he suffered from amblyopia ("lazy eye") and had to wear eye patches every hour he was awake. Mr. Taragano skipped the second and third grades and graduated high school and entered college at 16. His father was a New York city restaurateur/entrepreneur, and his mother worked as a Manhattan secretary after growing up on a 1200-acre chicken farm in Pennsylvania. Ever since Mr. Taragano was a young adult, he has manifested the gift of clairsentience (psychic hypersensitivity, intuition and perception) and he has an eidetic (photographic) memory -- the capacity to recall entire images in extremely miniscule detail -- which helps him tremendously in his authorship career.
Martin Taragano was the first member of his immediate family who had the opportunity to receive two university degrees. Mr. Taragano's first cousin once removed was American singer and
Broadway and TV star Eydie Gorme'. He grew up in a home without books but his love of reading the gorgeous written word evolved and grew intense once he reached his late teens. Just after
graduating high school Mr. Taragano had his first national publication in Sports Illustrated, eleven years before he officially started his professional authorship career.
Back then Mr. Taragano was so jeweled with literary naiveté that he knew absolutely nothing about the contemporary American publishing industry and had yet to start studying creative writing. Mr. Taragano didn't even know Sports Illustrated was considered a major, top tier
national periodical or that magazine senior acquisition editors actually paid authors for their work! He now writes his novels and poetry from his small authorship office.
WHAT'S MARTIN TARAGANO LIKE
Mr. Taragano characterizes himself as "a painfully introverted individual who is extremely private." He embraces solitude and "has enjoyed being virtually a recluse since the age of 19." He is
"most fulfilled living authentically as me with a definite preference for social isolation...Being a hermit is what I enjoy most. I have a few close friends, but crowds, parties and social gatherings are not my strong suit... What moves me to write fiction and poetry is my own pain and hurt. If a subject has immense emotional impact, I want to write about it." Mr. Taragano's historical ancestral provenance is from Southern Europe's Mediterranean basin however there is no Italian heritage in his family tree despite the "ano" suffix in his surname.
His paternal and maternal great-great grandparents' roots sprang from Hungary, Istanbul and Izmir (Smyrna) Turkey, Salonika (Thessaloniki) Greece and Toledo and Tarragona, Spain where his
ancestors' plucked apricots and figs before immigrating to fin de siècle America.
Both before and after graduating from the University of Iowa, Martin Taragano continued his
authorship career writing many novels and traditionally publishing over 220 periodical pieces including poems, investigative journalism features, short stories, book reviews, literature and film criticism, biographies, profiles, essays, sports writing and contributed myriad magazine feature cover articles for many national periodicals, literary quarterlies and journals.
Mr. Taragano has performed due diligence on many distinct subjects and has traditionally published two critically acclaimed NBA encyclopedias both of which received Publishers Weekly starred reviews.
Mr. Taragano is fundamentally an autodidactic fictionist, nonfiction writer, poet, and author. While he received advanced formal training in creative writing under the mentorship of his Iowa professors, he had already traditionally published many times before matriculating into the
University of Iowa in 1997.
BOOKS (Fiction)
Martin Taragano has written two new novels. Look for them soon! His two novels are THE HUMAN OVEN and RUNAWAY TANK. THE HUMAN OVEN is upmarket fiction while RUNAWAY TANK is a suspense thriller.
By an undeserved stroke of fortune, Martin Taragano's new 123,000-word upmarket novel THE HUMAN OVEN was shortlisted (a finalist) for the 2002 Associated Writing Programs/Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin's Press) Best Novel Award. A worthier voice than Mr. Taragano's summed up this manuscript by stating, "It's a shatteringly powerful novel of immense emotional impact about the blizzard inside and outside every human being." That was Mr. Taragano's editor speaking.
THE HUMAN OVEN is also a literary whodunnit about a desperate mother's search for her blind daughter's attacker with a subplot about a brutalized married couple who must face a sinister secret that if revealed will destroy them even worse than if they die in the threatening national blizzard mauling them. Matriarch Kama Rat must not only face her own abuse but also the abuse of her little blind daughter Poppy. But who is Poppy's abuser? Is it Grigg Guess, Poppy's jealous, grief-stricken piano teacher? Knaack Schoonwinkle, Poppy's lonely, manipulative Braille instructor? Streeter Dry, the family's desperate, impulsive yet loyal butler? Twango Twofoot, Dylan's enigmatic personal trainer? Or some other sinister character? Poppy refuses to tell. Kama doesn't know. You must read the entertaining and suspenseful novel to discover who hurt Poppy. THE HUMAN OVEN's narrative unfolds as a crippled wife and world-famous poet is forced to confront her traumatizing abuse while trying to prevent her blind daughter from more of the same abuse during the deadliest blizzard in world history.
The title THE HUMAN OVEN is both literal and metaphorical. Metaphorically it represents the theme of the destructive nature of human existence in the novel. The oven symbolizes damage and harm in both the domestic sphere and in the world.
Mr. Taragano also authored the high action suspense thriller novel RUNAWAY TANK.
This thriller is a dangerous cat and mouse hunt between a detective on the verge of a nervous breakdown and a deranged maniac who steals an M1 battle tank from a California armory. In RUNAWAY TANK LA detective Dave Brady must race against time to save the lives of three terrified hostages that sadistic serial killer Stone Striker holds captive inside an unstoppable and impenetrable runaway tank.
In RUNAWAY TANK, Striker uses his tank to terrorize and assault Los Angeles as he goes berserk in a frenzied rush of violence, crushing and destroying everything in sight on his murderous rampage. Striker demands $100 million to set his victims free. Will Los Angeles pay up? What if they don't? Or can't?
Three frightened hostages are locked inside Striker's tank. This madman must be stopped.... But how do you stop a runaway tank? You can't destroy it! You can't blow it up! You can't block it! You can't move it!
Detective Dave Brady must act now! He has no time to waste! Three innocent hostages might die!... How will Brady stop Striker?
Look for the edge of your seat excitement that only RUNAWAY TANK can deliver -- wherever you buy books very soon...
BOOKS (Nonfiction)
Two of Mr. Taragano's previous NBA books available are BASKETBALL BIOGRAPHIES (a centennial anniversary biographical encyclopedia) and PRO BASKETBALL STATISTICS (an exhaustive hoops stats encyclopedia) wherever you buy your books.
Publishers Weekly reviewed Martin Taragano's NBA book BASKETBALL BIOGRAPHIES with critical acclaim saying it was "The most fascinating and authoritative NBA volume I've ever read. There is nothing else like this in the contemporary marketplace. It will be just as popular as any competitors."
CREATIVE WRITING CREDENTIALS
Mr. Taragano is a multiple creative writing Fellowship & grant recipient. Among Mr. Taragano's writing honors, he has received a Bennington University Fellowship, a Wesleyan University Writer's Workshop Fellowship, a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, and a Provincetown Fine Arts Center Fellowship all for THE HUMAN OVEN novel. He was accepted to Columbia University's creative writing program but choose to be a scholarship graduate at the University of Iowa's creative writing program.
Martin Taragano has won Writer-in-Residence honors at the European Writing Program at Chateau de Lesvault in Onlay, France, The New York State Writer's Institute at Skidmore College, The Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony, and The Cumberland Valley Fiction Workshop at Dickinson College all for THE HUMAN OVEN novel.
Mr. Taragano's essays, poetry, short stories and feature magazine cover articles have been published in many national periodicals including Sports Illustrated, Chic, The South Carolina Review, Travel Review, Listen, and The Avocet, and many other literary quarterlies.
He has also received multiple creative writing grants from PEN American, The Carnegie Fund, The Authors Guild, and The American Society of Journalists and Authors.
MORE ABOUT MARTIN TARAGANO
Mr. Taragano is a film scholar who immensely enjoys classic cinema -- especially 1950s-1960s Hitchcock films, as well as Scorsese, Kazan, Kubrick, Kramer, Wilder, Fellini and Woody Allen films. Mr. Taragano's top ten most favorite films of cinema's golden era are A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Cool Hand Luke (1967), La Strada (1954), Bicycle Thieves (1948), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Lost Weekend (1945), The Godfather (1972), and the pre-code crime tragedy I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Goodfellas (1990) is also on Mr. Taragano's list.
If you're having a bad day, try watching one of these magnificent films to cheer you up.
The virtuosic American dramas The Defiant Ones (1958), Schindler's List (1993), the haunting One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Hard Times (1975), the riveting action thriller The Mechanic (1972), The Exorcist (1973), Scarface (1983), Cat on A Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Deer Hunter (1978), the mesmerizing Psycho (1960), and the devastating The Pawnbroker (1964) are twelve "must-see" films on cinephile Martin Taragano's all-time cinematic honorable mention list.
Martin Taragano enjoys The Beatles, Elvis, CCR, any song by Alecia Beth Hart Moore (aka "Pink"), Adele Laurie Blue Adkins MBE (Adele), and Bob Dylan the only singer/songwriter ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mr. Taragano continues to enjoy collecting great works of fictional, poetic, screen and nonfiction literature for his ever-expanding creative writing library.
If you're having lots of stress, feeling depressed or fearful, or are feeling overwhelming pain and suffering with any serious problem, instead of using drugs or guzzling alcohol, try exercising while listening to one of these phenomenal songs. This music on Martin Taragano's list below will give you a joyous cry and will make you feel better instantly.
Some of Martin Taragano's most emotionally powerful ballads and favorite nonclassical songs musical geniuses have ever written that Mr. Taragano has ever heard are Kris Kristofferson's, "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (1970) recorded by Sammi Smith, "A Love So Beautiful" by Michael Bolton, "Years" (1979)" by Barbara Mandrell, "Angie" (1973) covered by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, "Love on the Brain" (2016) by Rihanna, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" (1975) by Willie Nelson, "Unchained Melody" (1965) by The Righteous Brothers, "When A Man Loves A Woman" (1966) by Percy Sledge, "Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown, 1965), "Something," "Yesterday," "Eleanor Rigby," by The Beatles, "Across the Universe," also by The Beatles, Coldplay's "Yellow" (2000), Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" (2006), Nilsson's & Mariah Carey's "Without You " (1971 & 1993), Hoobastank's "The Reason," (2003), Pink's "Perfect," Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," and Joe Cocker's harrowing and stunningly soulful, raw, raspy vocals on "I Shall be Released" (1969). Also, anything by CCR (everything is virtuosic) and most anything from Three Dog Night including "Try A Little Tenderness," "One," and "Never Been to Spain."
If you don't cry when listening to any of these songs, you're not human. With themes of loneliness, heartbreak, regret and longing these profoundly moving songs possess raw emotions of sorrow, sadness, suffering, vulnerability and human pain that evoke a joyous cry. Exercise and these songs will kill the pain inside you and make you happy.
Mr. Taragano first started his diverse and accomplished authorship career in 1990. His nonfiction reading centers on classic cinema, renaissance sculpture and painting, psychiatry, pop and rock music, exercise science, fitness, clinical nutrition, abnormal psychology and the NBA. His long fiction reading primarily focuses on the 20th century Nobel Literature Laureates.
Mr. Taragano's interest in drama includes the 20th century's most philosophically and psychologically profound playwrights including T. Williams, A. Miller, E. Albee, R. Anderson and E. O'Neill. Mr. Taragano admits he learned ten times more on how to write emotionally powerful fiction by reading and viewing the plays of America's greatest dramatists than he ever did from reading the world's greatest novels.
Mr. Taragano's passion for verse has been exhaustive and must include the poetic oeuvres of G. Mistral, Mauriac, Milosz, Bunin, Karlfeldt, Yeats, S.J. Perse, Spitteler, V.V. Heidenstam, Tagore, P.J. Ludwig Von Heyse, Elytis, Martinson, Montale, Carducci, F. Mistral, Aleixandre, Bjornson, Seifert, Prudhomme, Jimenez, Neruda, Sachs and Seferis.
Before Martin Taragano received advanced erudition in nutritional science and dietetics, he once owned and operated a hot dog food truck which was as he describes as "A truly eye-opening experience on the profound health concerns of American society as I encountered some of the most bizarre and dangerous gastronomical preferences of my life."
Martin Taragano also worked during the graveyard shifts as a master pastry chef working 12 hours a day seven days a week in pastry shops in the northeast. Then as a young man jeweled with naiveté, his passion for fine automobiles led him to a position as a Cadillac, Corvette and DeLorean motorcar technician at a New York-based, mafia-owned car dealership in the 1980s. Mr. Taragano says of that experience, "In between twisting wrenches on some of the world's most expensive and exotic American automobiles, I trembled with the fear of being in debt to a loan shark."
Mr. Taragano has loved fine automobiles since he was a lad. His personal dream garage houses an air-cooled 2002 Porsche 911, a 2013 Mercedes S550 4MATIC, a 2015 Mercedes GL 550 4MATIC, a 1980 C3 Corvette, a 2017 Cadillac Escalade Platinum, a 2018 BMW 750i xDrive, and a 1985 Ferrari 308 GTB -- all black.
Some of the better suited careers Martin Taragano had in his adult life while establishing his authorship career were nationally certified personal fitness trainer, clinical nutritionist, librarian, research assistant, resume writer, and co-owner and general manager of a large 255-seat vegetarian and vegan-cuisine restaurant in New Jersey.
Mr. Taragano has always enjoyed gaining advanced scholarship in diverse professions.
Mr. Taragano believes that the absolute worst savagery that could happen to a human being other than death is not financial impoverishment, not homelessness, not hunger, not sickness, not excruciating physical and mental pain, not attempting self-slaughter, not lack of love, not even abuse -- but losing one's freedom.
Martin Taragano intentionally lost his freedom to be able to perform firsthand, extensive research on losing one's freedom. He plans on authoring a new literary novel on the incapacitating pain and barbaric mental depression human beings suffer vis-a-vis losing their freedom about this very subject soon.
Mr. Taragano plans to utilize his erudition by going on Jeopardy in the near future. Please wish him luck.
BOOKS
Novels: The Human Oven; Runaway Tank; Running with Mr. Search for Love
Nonfiction: Basketball Biographies; Pro Basketball Statistics
Forthcoming Books: The Human Oven; Runaway Tank
Bio
Writing Journey
Martin Taragano has been writing and telling stories since they were a young child. Perhaps it was inevitable that they would call grappling with words and language a career—and loving every moment. They are privileged to share their work with a large and welcoming audience. Get in touch to discover more about their work, writing process and future endeavors.
