Michael Pastore, Zorba Press’s Publisher and Editorial Director, is a novelist, and a poet who lives in the counter-cultured city of Ithaca, New York. He has traveled extensively — always by bicycle, often sleeping under the stars — in the USA, Europe, Turkey, and Greece. His more than 20 books include Thoreau Bound: a Utopian Romance in the Isles of Greece; Lark’s Magic; Zen in the Art of Child Maintenance; Zenlightenment!; The Zorba Anthology of Love Stories; New Techniques in Child Maintenance; The Ithaca Manual of Style; Siddhartha and Kamala; and Teaching Kindness and Peace.
In June 2015, his book of poetry was published by Zorba Press:
Sappho at the Edge of Love.
Pastore’s articles, essays, and interviews — about literature, sustainable living, children and childhood, humanizing technology, and creativity — have appeared in more than two dozen print publications nationwide. As an expert in electronic publishing and the Internet, Pastore’s words and photo were featured in an article in the New York Times newspaper on April 9, 2001. During the summer of 2000, he was contracted by a leading technology corporation to lead a team that developed a comprehensive online examination about the world of publishing: books, magazines, newspapers, and ebooks. In Spring 1999, one of his books was mentioned in the prestigious Times Literary Supplement.
He lives in the small city of Ithaca (New York, USA) with his library of more than 8,000 of the world’s best books. About the importance of literature he writes: “Why read? … The best books give us timeless hours of portable joy, expand our empathy and imagination, remind us of our past, bring hope to our future, caution us to live wisely, empassion us to seize the moment, show us ideals embodied in heroes and heroines, inspire us to be great lovers and rebels, give us courage to dare to be ourselves, corroborate our most sublime feelings, and point the way to deeper meaning in our everyday lives.”