Kenedi, Aaron

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KENEDI, Aaron

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Danilo Black, 224 Jackson St. Fl. 2, San Francisco, CA 94111.

CAREER: Writer, editor, designer, production artist, and book packager. Big Fish (book packaging company), San Francisco, CA, confounder, 1989; Danilo Black, San Francisco, CA, project manager. Project consultant for several companies, including HarperCollins, Marimba, TV Guide, Gensler, SparkPR, and Alza Pharmaceuticals.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with John Miller) Friendship: Great Minds on the Deepest Bond, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with John Miller) Muhammad Ali: Ringside, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1999.

(Editor, with John Miller) Lovers: Great Romances ofOur Time through the Eyes of Legendary Writers, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1999.

(Editor, with John Miller) God's Breath: SacredScriptures of the World, Marlowe & Co. (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with John Miller) Healing Hearts: Compassionate Writers on Breaking Up, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with John Miller) Revolution: Faces ofChange, Thunder's Mouth Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with John Miller) Inside Islam: The Faith, thePeople and the Conflicts of the World's Fastest-Growing Religion, Marlow & Co. (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with David K. Shipler and John Miller) InsideIsrael: The Faiths, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Holiest Land, Marlow & Co. (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with Andrei Codrescu and John Miller) InsideCuba: The History, Culture, and Politics of an Outlaw Nation, Marlow & Co. (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with John Miller) Inside Iraq: The History, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Least-Understood Land, Marlow & Co. (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with John Miller) Where Inspiration Lives:Writers, Artists, and Their Creative Places, New World Library (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Aaron Kenedi has worked in many areas of book packaging and design. With John Miller, he founded Big Fish, a media design studio in San Francisco. Established in 1989, the studio specializes in magazine design and book packaging, as well as internet design. Kenedi served as print director for Big Fish and during his tenure the firm produced more than fifty well-received art and literary books.

Harvey Frommer wrote in TodaysSports.com about Muhammad Ali: Ringside, "Muhammad Ali was the greatest. And finally, there is the greatest book about him." The book is a collection of essays by many writers, including Jackie Robinson, Malcolm X, George Plimpton, Joyce Carol Oates, Reggie Jackson, and Ali himself about his life and career. In addition, the book includes reproductions of fight posters, programs, tickets, photos, and even an X-ray of Ali's jaw after it was broken in a fight with Ken Norton. Frommer praised the "stunning" visual images, and noted, "Ringside pulls no punches in its honest portrayal of this bigger-than-life sports hero."

Described as "a coffee table book" of rebels by Orya Hyde-Keller in the Boulder Weekly, Revolution: Faces of Change presents profiles and tributes of twenty-five revolutionary people, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Che Guevara, Harriet Tubman to Mohandas Gandhi. The term "revolutionary" refers to anyone who has resisted the prevailing authority, whether through violent action or peaceful means. Hyde-Keller commented that the essays are all excerpts from larger works, and recommended that readers interested in these people can go on to read the original works the pieces were taken from. She also noted that the book would be useful for those wanting to introduce young people to the concepts and heroes of revolution

God's Breath is a collection of selections from seven of the world's spiritual traditions: Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sufism, and Taoism. The book is illustrated with woodcuts and includes introductions by noted scholars and writers, including Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, the Dalai Lama, and others. The title comes from a Zen precept that instead of becoming caught up in the specific names or traditions or teachers of a particular spiritual path, one should go beyond these, listening to "God's breath."

Lovers: Great Romances of Our Time through the Eyes of Legendary Writers presents fifty profiles of famous romances, including those of movie stars like Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy; writers like Dylan Thomas, Anaïs Nin; and even Jimmy Carter and his wife, Roslyn. The book, intended to inspire people to bring greatness to their own love lives, includes portraits by noted photographers of a variety of couples, and celebrates their personal experiences of this deep bond. Healing Hearts: Compassionate Writers on Breaking Up is a collection of stories, essays, and poems about the pain of breaking up with a loved one, and offers compassion and support for people who are in this emotionally difficult time. In Friendship: Great Minds on the Deepest Bond, a wide variety of writers consider this strongest connection between people. Essays on new friends, best friends, old friends, and first friends are intended to inspire and celebrate this special bond.