Michael Zadoorian

Michael Zadoorian (born February 26, 1957 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American novelist and short story writer. Zadoorian’s work explores themes of love, death, memory, things forgotten and found again, the eidetic power of photographic images, and Detroit. His most recent novel is The Leisure Seeker, published in 2009 by William Morrow. In 2016, it was adapted for a motion picture starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, and directed by Italian film director, Paolo Virzi. The film is expected to release in 2017.

Zadoorian was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Rosemary Zadoorian (Spala) and Norman Zadoorian, an industrial photographer. He graduated from Wayne State University in 1979, with a B.A. in Communications and minor in English. In the late eighties, he returned to Wayne State, where he studied with writers Charles Baxter, Samuel Astrachan and Christopher Towne Leland, winning three Tompkins Awards for fiction and essay and a Loughead-Eldridge Creative Writing Scholarship. He earned an M.A. in Creative Writing in 1994.

His short stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, American Short Fiction, Great Lakes Review, Wisconsin Review, North American Review and the anthologies Detroit Noir, On The Clock and Bob Seger’s House.

In 2000, W.W. Norton published his first novel, Second Hand, about a Detroit-area vintage store owner searching for meaning in other people’s junk. The New York Times Book Review called it "a gift from the (Tiki) gods" and "a romantic adventure that explores what Yeats called 'the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.'”The book was awarded the Great Lakes Colleges Association First Fiction Award and was selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writersand Book Sense 76 programs.

In 2009, William Morrow published his second novel, The Leisure Seeker, a road novel about John and Ella, an elderly couple who escape the doctors and adult children who control their lives, to take a final vacation together. Booklist, in a starred review stated: “The Leisure Seeker is pretty much like life itself: joyous, painful, funny, moving, tragic, mysterious, and not to be missed.” The Los Angeles Times review called the novel a "heartfelt story of the grown children dealing with "stuff," both physical and emotional, left over after the death of their parents". It was a bestseller in Italy and long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Also in 2009, Wayne State University Press published The Lost Tiki Palaces Of Detroit, a collection of stories, which received a Michigan Notable Book award.

In 2010, he received the Anahid Literary Award from Columbia University. In 2013, he was the recipient of a Kresge Artist Fellowship in the Literary Arts.

In 2016, at the Cannes Film Festival, award-winning Italian director Paolo Virzi announcedthat The Leisure Seeker would be his first English language film, with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland starring as Ella and John. The script was adapted by Francesca Archibugi, Francesco Piccolo, Stephen Amidon and Virzi. Filming commenced in July, 2016 in Georgia and wrapped September 2016 in Key West, Florida. Sony Pictures Classics acquired all rights for the U.S., Latin America, Asia (excluding Japan), Eastern Europe, Portugal and South Africa and the film is expected to release in 2017.

Zadoorian has worked as a lawn boy, a shipping room clerk, a plant guard for Chrysler, a UPS mail sorter, a freelance journalist, but primarily as an advertising copywriter, spending most of his career at the Doner and Campbell Ewald agencies in the Detroit area.

He lives with his wife, Rita Simmons in Ferndale, Michigan.

Novels

• Second Hand (2000)
• The Leisure Seeker (2009)

Short Stories

• The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit: Short Stories (2009)

• Pre-Press Short Fiction award, Michigan Council for Arts (1995)
• Selection, Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” program (2000)
• Best Books of 2000, Fiction and Literature, Borders.com (2000)
• Best Books of 2000, Detroit Free Press (2000)
• Favorite Books of 2000, Chicago Tribune (2000)
• Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) First Fiction Award (2001)
• Honoree, Festivaletteratura, Mantua, Italy (2009)
• Speaker, International Short Story Festival, Wroclaw, Poland (2009)
• Prix Chronos de Literature selection, France (2009)
• Winner, Columbia University (NY), Anahid Literary Award (2010)
• Michigan Notable Book Award, The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit (2010)
• Longlisted, International Dublin Literary Award (2011)
• Kresge Fellowship in the Literary Arts (2013)

• "Winners of the GLCA New Writers Award, (2001)" (PDF). Great Lakes College Association. Retrieved December 28, 2016. 
• Hairenik (21 March 2014). "Anahid Literary Awards Celebration at Columbia University". Sony Pictures.