Bill Porter Author & Editor

Bill Porter: Bill Porter is an award-winning author and translator who uses the pen name Red Pine for his translations. He is considered one of the foremost translators of Chinese texts, especially Buddhist and Taoist poetry and sutras. Porter was born in Los Angeles in 1943 and grew up in the Idaho Panhandle. After a tour of duty in the US Army, Porter graduated from the University of California with a degree in anthropology, and attended graduate school at Columbia University. However, he left academia, moved to Taiwan and joined a Buddhist monastery, where he stayed for four years. After his stint in a monastery, Porter produced thousands of radio programs for stations in Taiwan and Hong Kong about his travels in China. Porter's translation work includes major Buddhist texts such as The Platform Sutra, The Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra as well as best-selling poetry collections Taoteching and Collected Songs of Cold Mountain. He is also the author of Zen Baggage and Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. Porter lives in Port Townsend, Washington.