Ken Gorfkle
About Ken Gorfkle, Ph.D.

About Ken Gorfkle, Ph.D.

Gorfkle’s journey to a professional writing career has been a circuitous one, spanning more than three decades.  While pursuing his work of real estate development in San Francisco in the 1980’s, Gorfkle’s marriage to a Parisienne led him to the study of French; in that moment he discovered that he had both an aptitude and passion for languages.

Gorfkle moved from the Bay Area to Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2000.  Soon after, in 2001, a few Spanish lessons taken on the suggestion of a friend were all that was necessary to ignite Gorfkle’s love affair with that language as well, one that would lead him back to the university and, ultimately, a writing career.

After three years of Spanish study, Gorfkle began auditing courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was encouraged to enter the Spanish graduate program by professors there who recognized his abilities. In preparation for entering the program, Gorfkle spent four months in Santiago, Chile and there discovered yet another passion: the poetry of Chilean poet David Rosenmann-Taub.

During his academic years at UNC Chapel Hill, subsequently as a Visiting Scholar and currently as a Research Collaborator, Gorfkle has given conference presentations, published translations of Rosenmann-Taub’s poetry and written and published articles on the poet’s work, thought, and style. His two book-length works to date are his doctoral dissertation, “The Intersection of Life and Death in David Rosenmann-Taub’s Tetralogy Cortejo y Epinicio” and his new book, David Rosenmann-Taub: Poems and Commentaries.

In addition to his real estate work in Chapel Hill and his writing career centered on Rosenmann-Taub, Gorfkle is also dedicated to piano study and performance. Hailing from a musical family, he was deemed a child prodigy at the piano and performed as a teen with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Along with his continuing piano study with a renowned piano pedagogue, Gorfkle also produces home concerts for local classical music lovers, inviting world-famous concert pianists to perform on his Bosendorfer concert grand piano. To learn more about his home concerts, visit ChapelHillPianoSalon.com.