An Agent of Undiscovered Literature

Arevik Ashkharoyan

At book fairs, the whole business starts with introductions. In my case there are usually two scenarios: 

Scenario One: Armenia. No, not Albania, Armenia. No, no, it is not Romania. Armenia – it is a country in the Caucasus. What is the Caucasus? Well, we are next to…Turkey. The last thing I want to say is – we are a post-Soviet country. Because if we come to this point in the conversation, my next answers are: No, we don’t only speak Russian, we have our own language of Indo-European roots, dating back around 3000 years, alphabet created in the 4th century, development stages just like in English - old, middle and modern. 

Scenario Two: “Oh, I have a friend who is Armenian. And he is a famous artist… or a musician…or a journalist….or a filmmaker…” And here we start talking about THE friend and how talented he/she is. And, of course, I write down the name to search for later, as obviously, I don’t know all the artists, musicians, journalists, filmmakers or other Armenian talent from all over the world.

In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey

Scott Neuffer

 

Zabel Yessayan, In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey, translated by G. M. Goshgarian, AIWA Press.

This unsparing, unflinching, and darkly poetic account of the 1909 massacre of 30,000 Armenians in Adana, Turkey, makes Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness seem like leisure reading. That’s because Zabel Yessayan, one of the most important Armenian woman writers of the modern era, is relentless in capturing every horrid detail of genocide: every burnt building, every blood-streaked field, and every broken and whimpering face of those who survived the massacre.

Hamazkayin Announces New Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature

The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society of the Eastern United States this week announced the establishment of the Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature. Named after one of the major Armenian literary critics of the second half of the 20th century, and his wife, a devoted teacher of that literature for decades, the annually awarded prize will recognize the work produced by talented writers working in North America.