Tweet
AMERICAN AUTHORS BUILD LITERARY CONNECTIONS WITH ARMENIA AND TURKEY
12:22, 22 Oct 2014
Six American authors are traveling to Armenia and Turkey to visit
local universities and literary institutions as part of a reading tour
organized by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program
(IWP). The trip aims to introduce contemporary American authors to
Armenia and Turkey and to foster creative ties between the countries,
reports Asbarez.
Specifically, writers will visit several courses at Yerevan Brusov
State University.
Representing the American literary scene
Peter Balakian is the author of seven books of poems, including
"June-Tree: New and Selected Poems 1974-2000" and the forthcoming
"Ozone Journal." His memoir "Black Dog of Fate" won the PEN/Albrand
Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book; "The Burning Tigris: The
Armenian Genocide and America's Response" (2003) won the Raphael Lemkin
Prize. Translations of his work have appeared in a dozen languages;
he is the recipient of many awards including a Guggenheim fellowship
and the Spendlove Prize for Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. A
Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities, he
directs the Creative Writing Program at Colgate University.
Maureen Freely was born in the US, grew up in Turkey, and has spent
most of her adult life in England. A professor at the University of
Warwick, she is currently the President of English PEN and the chair of
the Translators Association. A translator of the Turkish novelist and
Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, she has been involved extensively in human
rights campaigning in Turkey. Her sixth novel, "Enlightenment" (2007),
covers some of that ground; her seventh, "Sailing through Byzantium,"
was named one of the best novels of 2013 in the Sunday Times.
Gregory Orfalea was born and raised in Los Angeles. He is the author
of "Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra's Dream and the Founding of
California," published in January 2014 by Scribner. With degrees
from Georgetown University and the University of Alaska, Orfalea
has published nine books, including a history of his father's unit
in World War II, "Messengers of the Lost Battalion," and "Angeleno
Days," a memoir of growing up in Los Angeles, which won the Arab
American Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN USA Prize in
Creative Nonfiction. He is also the author of a collection of short
stories, "The Man Who Guarded the Bomb," as well as the seminal study,
"The Arab Americans: A History." Orfalea directed a writing program
at the Claremont Colleges and has taught at several universities,
including his alma mater, Georgetown, California Lutheran University,
and currently Westmont College in Santa Barbara, where he directs
the Conference on California Studies.
Mary Hickman is the author of two forthcoming books of poetry,
"Wildlife" (2015) and "Rayfish" (2017). Her poems have been published
in Colorado Review, jubilat, the PEN Poetry Series, and featured in
Boston Review and the anthology "The Arcadia Project." Her scholarly
work is forthcoming in "Jacket2." She has been a finalist for the
Grolier Poetry Prize and the EPR Discovery Award. With the poet Robert
Fernandez, she edits the poetry press Cosa Nostra Editions. She has
lived in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Spain.
Gish Jen is the author of four novels, a collection of short stories
and, most recently, the volume of lectures "Tiger Writing: Art, Culture
and the Interdependent Self" (2013). Her work has been published in
The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and dozens of other periodicals
and anthologies, including "The Best American Short Stories of the
Century." Nominated for a National Book Critics' Circle Award and
an International IMPAC Dublin Book Award, she has received a Lannan
Literary Award for Fiction, a Guggenheim fellowship, and numerous
other awards; in 2009 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences.
Christopher Merrill has published six books of poetry, including
"Watch Fire," for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award
from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and books of
translations; and five works of nonfiction, among them, "Only the Nails
Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars" and "Things of the Hidden God:
Journey to the Holy Mountain." His latest, "The Tree of the Doves:
Ceremony, Expedition, War" (2011) chronicles his travels in Asia
and the Middle East in the wake of the war on terror. His writings
have been translated into twenty-five languages; his honors include
a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. A
member of the National Council on the Humanities and the U.S. National
Commission for UNESCO, he directs the International Writing Program
at the University of Iowa.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/10/22/american-authors-build-literary-connections-with-armenia-and-turkey/
From: Baghdasarian
12:22, 22 Oct 2014
Six American authors are traveling to Armenia and Turkey to visit
local universities and literary institutions as part of a reading tour
organized by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program
(IWP). The trip aims to introduce contemporary American authors to
Armenia and Turkey and to foster creative ties between the countries,
reports Asbarez.
Specifically, writers will visit several courses at Yerevan Brusov
State University.
Representing the American literary scene
Peter Balakian is the author of seven books of poems, including
"June-Tree: New and Selected Poems 1974-2000" and the forthcoming
"Ozone Journal." His memoir "Black Dog of Fate" won the PEN/Albrand
Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book; "The Burning Tigris: The
Armenian Genocide and America's Response" (2003) won the Raphael Lemkin
Prize. Translations of his work have appeared in a dozen languages;
he is the recipient of many awards including a Guggenheim fellowship
and the Spendlove Prize for Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. A
Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities, he
directs the Creative Writing Program at Colgate University.
Maureen Freely was born in the US, grew up in Turkey, and has spent
most of her adult life in England. A professor at the University of
Warwick, she is currently the President of English PEN and the chair of
the Translators Association. A translator of the Turkish novelist and
Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, she has been involved extensively in human
rights campaigning in Turkey. Her sixth novel, "Enlightenment" (2007),
covers some of that ground; her seventh, "Sailing through Byzantium,"
was named one of the best novels of 2013 in the Sunday Times.
Gregory Orfalea was born and raised in Los Angeles. He is the author
of "Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra's Dream and the Founding of
California," published in January 2014 by Scribner. With degrees
from Georgetown University and the University of Alaska, Orfalea
has published nine books, including a history of his father's unit
in World War II, "Messengers of the Lost Battalion," and "Angeleno
Days," a memoir of growing up in Los Angeles, which won the Arab
American Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN USA Prize in
Creative Nonfiction. He is also the author of a collection of short
stories, "The Man Who Guarded the Bomb," as well as the seminal study,
"The Arab Americans: A History." Orfalea directed a writing program
at the Claremont Colleges and has taught at several universities,
including his alma mater, Georgetown, California Lutheran University,
and currently Westmont College in Santa Barbara, where he directs
the Conference on California Studies.
Mary Hickman is the author of two forthcoming books of poetry,
"Wildlife" (2015) and "Rayfish" (2017). Her poems have been published
in Colorado Review, jubilat, the PEN Poetry Series, and featured in
Boston Review and the anthology "The Arcadia Project." Her scholarly
work is forthcoming in "Jacket2." She has been a finalist for the
Grolier Poetry Prize and the EPR Discovery Award. With the poet Robert
Fernandez, she edits the poetry press Cosa Nostra Editions. She has
lived in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Spain.
Gish Jen is the author of four novels, a collection of short stories
and, most recently, the volume of lectures "Tiger Writing: Art, Culture
and the Interdependent Self" (2013). Her work has been published in
The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and dozens of other periodicals
and anthologies, including "The Best American Short Stories of the
Century." Nominated for a National Book Critics' Circle Award and
an International IMPAC Dublin Book Award, she has received a Lannan
Literary Award for Fiction, a Guggenheim fellowship, and numerous
other awards; in 2009 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences.
Christopher Merrill has published six books of poetry, including
"Watch Fire," for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award
from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and books of
translations; and five works of nonfiction, among them, "Only the Nails
Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars" and "Things of the Hidden God:
Journey to the Holy Mountain." His latest, "The Tree of the Doves:
Ceremony, Expedition, War" (2011) chronicles his travels in Asia
and the Middle East in the wake of the war on terror. His writings
have been translated into twenty-five languages; his honors include
a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. A
member of the National Council on the Humanities and the U.S. National
Commission for UNESCO, he directs the International Writing Program
at the University of Iowa.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/10/22/american-authors-build-literary-connections-with-armenia-and-turkey/
From: Baghdasarian