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About John Donohue
John Donohue has been banging around dojo for more than 30 years. He's
an expert on the study of the martial arts.
Fascinated with the themes of human action and potential he uncovered in
his research, John began thinking about the fictional possibilities inherent in
the world of the martial arts. He began working in earnest on Sensei , the
first Connor Burke thriller, in 2000. It was released in 2003 ( a paperback
edition followed in 2004). The sequel, Deshi, was published in 2005
(paperback in February 2006).
The third "burkebook," Tengu, will be published in Fall 2008.
Current writing projects include the fourth installment of the adventures of
Burke and Yamashita (Kage), a new series Wave Man, as well as a
non-fictional memoir of martial arts training, Lessons from My Sensei.
John has always been fascinated with other cultures and was attracted to
the Asian martial disciplines because of their blend of philosophy and
action. He began studying Shotokan Karatedo in college. He joined practical
training with more formal education, completing a Ph.D. in Anthropology
from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His doctoral
dissertation on the cultural aspects of the Japanese martial arts formed the
basis for his first book, The Forge of the Spirit . (For links to this or any of
the books listed on this page, click here.)
John has worked in the hospitality, advertising, and publishing industries,
but for the bulk of his non-writing career he has been a higher education
professional, working as both a teacher and senior level manager at a
number of colleges--strapped, as he says, to the wheel of administrative
karma (for further information, click here.) .
During that time he continued to think about and do martial arts. He wrote
Warrior Dreams: The Martial Arts and the American Imagination as a
companion piece to Forge of the Spirit . Always interested in the spiritual
dimension of martial training, he wrote Herding the Ox: The Martial Arts as
Moral Metaphor . Fascinated with the process of learning the modern Way
of the Sword (kendo), he wrote Complete Kendo . He recently edited a book
of martial arts readings, The Overlook Martial Arts Reader, Vol. 2.,
published in 2004 John is also the author of many articles on the martial arts
(to see a complete list, click here ). Fusing the way of the pen and the way
of the sword, while writing John has trained in the martial disciplines of
aikido, iaido, judo, karatedo, kendo, and taiji. He has dan (black belt) ranks
in both karatedo and kendo.
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Because you can't work all the time:
my wife and I kayaking
on the NIagara RIver
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John Donohue
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