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So how do you bring a freshness and verve to any tribute for the famous writer at this point in the calendar? If you're Edward Lund, Debra Shapazian and Chuck Erven, you delve into his archives for inspiration.

The result is "Lines, Lines, Lines," an entertaining look at Saroyan through his writings, art and personal effects.

The exhibit at Fresno City College's Art Space Gallery runs through Sept. 27, when a special reading of little-known Saroyan works will be presented.

For Lund, the gallery's curator, it was a challenge to create a free artistic installation that follows a biographical thread.

"How do you present a writer in a gallery?" he asks. "How do I present some new twists to him?

With keen attention to imagery, the show uses familiar Saroyan icons and private possessions to give visitors a more perso

nal and whimsical acquaintance with the award-winning writer.

Think of it as browsing through someone's desk or cabinets, but you don't have to be sneaky about it.

Earlier this year, Lund, Shapazian and Erven visited Stanford University, where the largest collection of Saroyan archives is housed. They wanted to garner a sense of the man and his psyche. Shapazian and Erven, both theater instructors at Fresno City College, prepared the reading presentation.

Lund then went to work on creating the gallery exhibit, gathering Saroyan items from the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, an anonymous lender and Larry Balakian, chairman of the William Saroyan Centennial Committee.

The installation carries a lilt of romanticism. Your eye might first be drawn to Saroyan's green Raleigh Sports bicycle suspended in midair, his khaki felt fedora hovering above the bike. The items cast a shadow, as if an invisible but known rider is sweeping around the room.

Lund, who's a cyclist, says he wanted the bike in the show: As a teenager, he worked at Steven's Bicycles at Palm and Shields avenues, where Saroyan would bring his bike in for repairs. Lund remembers Saroyan writing on paper bags and napkins as he waited, "writing stuff down."

Some of the words of Saroyan are in this exhibit, unfurling in lines of typewriter font along the gallery walls.

"I have made a fiasco of my life, but I have had the right material to work with."

"This is what drives a writer out of his head, this feeling that nothing is being said."

"I don't have to write plays for a living. I've got a bicycle."

"I do not know what makes a writer, but it probably isn't happiness."

"I do not know what makes a writer, but it probably is happiness."

And then there are the small, compelling details: His old-fashioned typewriters. A well-traveled brown suitcase. Matchbooks from such places as the Russian Tea Room and Sardi's East. A key and fob from The Sands in Las Vegas, Room 230. Crumpled-up packs of cigarettes with labels like Chesterfield and Philip Mor- ris. Blue boxes of typewriter ribbon.

Lund says he likes to think that all these objects were bits of inspiration that could "reinforce the ideas that I can only imagine were swimming around in his head."

And, it seems, Saroyan would have fit right in with the Twitter (computer-savvy) generation: He timed and dated nearly everything, usually with the location. An abstract expressionism piece by Saroyan -- appropriately flowing with multcolored lines -- is signed by him, with the words "Paris Wednesday May 22, 1974 10 p.m. #1 Any Old Time is Just Fine."

The readings that Erven and Shapazian chose probably will not be familiar to most people -- and that's just the way they wanted it.

Shapazian says they wanted writings, with Saroyan's won- derful cadence, that reflect his well-honed insight into human character. She says the people he writes about jump off the page.

The pieces will include "Ah, Blooming Universe," a 10-minute play from 1956 that they believe was never performed, and two tongue-in-cheek essays he wrote. One is called "How to Be a Writer," the other "How to Write a Great Play." Fresno City College theater faculty, other faculty and students will read the work.

"We knew we wanted to find pieces that immediately struck us as kind of quirky and funny and yet had a kind of charm to it," Erven says. And "yet are so very clearly Saroyan."