 Various authors, including English travel writer Philip Marsden, Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk, American playwright David Mamet, Iranian-born Armenian-American academic Vartan Gregorian, French military writer Gérard Chaliand, Armenian-American criminal defense lawyer Mark Geragos, Armenian-American journalist Stephen Kurkjian, and others have used it in their works.In 2008, California state senators Dave Cogdill and Joe Simitian, along with California assemblymen Greg Aghazarian, Juan Arambula, Paul Krekorian, and Michael Villines proposed a bill which "would designate the year 2008 as the William Saroyan Year".In the statement, "The Armenian and the Armenian" was described as "an especially stirring declaration of solidarity...