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Issue 120, Winter 2024

Wasafiri 120: Armenia(n)s – Elevation

From poetry and fiction to newly released book reviews, art, and interviews – cover to cover – our 2024 winter special issue, Wasafiri 120: Armenia(n)s – Elevation, guest co-edited by Tatevik Ayvazyan and Naneh V Hovhannisyan, shines a light on modern Armenian identities and experiences. Alongside personal stories of love, loss, and memory, the volume speaks to current global issues – displacement, fragmentation, and conflict — all with eloquence, and all, ultimately, for elevation. This is your jukebox issue of contemporary Armenian writing, with varied content for varied tastes.

Editorial Light Through Our Ruptures

Lead Feature Two Armenians Conversing in Two Armenians: Tamar Marie Boyadjian and Hrach Martirosyan

Articles Soviet-Armenian Gulag Literature: At the Crossroads of Ethics and Aesthetics; Western Armenian: The Curious Story of a Surviving Language and Its Literature

Interviews Armen Davoudian; Hovhannes Margaryan; Hovhannes Jean-Chat Tekgyozyan

Art Recreating Home in Exile: The Armenian Memory Book as Art, Artefact, and Roadmap

Fiction Narine Abgaryan, trans. Margarit Ordukhanyan & Zara M. Torlone, Christian Batikian, trans. Jesse Siragan Arlen, Anna Davtyan, trans. Hayk Hambartsum, Aram Pachyan, trans. Nazareth Seferian

Poetry Tenny Arlen, trans. Jesse Siragan Arlen, Mher Arshakyan, trans. Susan Barba, Vahagn Atabekyan, trans. Susan Barba, Krikor Beledian, trans. Taline Voskeritchian & Christopher Millis, Perla Kantarjian, Arthur Kayzakian, Marine Petrossian, trans. Arthur Kayzakian, Zahrad, trans. Lola Koundakjian

Life Writing Sylvia Angelique Alajaji, Chris Bohjalian, Lusine Hovhannisyan, trans. Thomas Toghramadjian, Nancy Kricorian, Shogher Sargsyan, trans. Margarit Ordukhanyan

Review Essay Delimiting Diaspora

Reviews Souls on Fire, Yeghishé Charents; From the Depths of the Heart, St. Gregory of Narek; No Sign, Peter Balakian; The Institute for Other Intelligences, Mashinka Firuntz Hakopian; In Everything I See Your Hand, Naira Kuzmich

... and much more.

Preorder now.


Contents

Editorial

Light Through Our Ruptures
Tatevik Ayvazyan and Naneh V Hovhannisyan

Lead Feature

Two Armenians Conversing in Two Armenians: Tamar Marie Boyadjian and Hrach Martirosyan
Tamar Marie Boyadjian and Hrach Martirosyan, trans. by Maral Aktokmakyan

Articles

Western Armenian: The Curious Story of a Surviving Language and Its Literature
Maral Aktokmakyan

Soviet-Armenian Gulag Literature: At the Crossroads of Ethics and Aesthetics
Siranush Dvoyan, trans. Shushan Avagyan

Life Writing 

When I Became an Armenian-American Writer
Chris Bohjalian

Dear Shogher: Letters to Myself
Shogher Sargsyan, trans. Margarit Ordukhanyan

His Driving Life
Nancy Kricorian

I Want Nice Things
Lusine Hovhannisyan, trans. Thomas Toghramadjian

Evenings in Diaspora
Sylvia Alajaji

Interviews

The Great Repatriation and its Reverberations: An Interview with Hovhannes Margaryan
Tigran Paskevichyan, trans. by Nanor Kebranian

The Past of the Future: A Conversation with Armen Davoudian
Fatemeh Shams

At an Unknown Location: Hovhannes Jean-Chat Tekgyozyan on Language as Asylum
Anush Kocharyan

Art

Recreating Home in Exile: The Armenian Memory Book as Art, Artefact, and Roadmap
Khatchig Mouradian, Garine Boghossian, Christopher Kazar Janigian, Masha Keryan 

Fiction

cenotaph
Aram Pachyan, trans. Nazareth Seferian

Before You Fall Asleep
Christian Batikian, trans. Jesse S Arlen

Loneliness
Narine Abgaryan, trans. Margarit Ordukhanyan and Zara Torlone

Ararat
Anna Davtyan, trans. Hayk Hambartsum

Poetry

Unpeopled Language
Krikor Beledian, trans. Taline Voskeritchian and Christopher Millis

Aleppo, 1915: Surviving After the Survival; when the wolves come thrashing; Dream Dictionary 
Perla Kantarjian

Five Untitled Poems
Marine Petrossian, trans. Arthur Kayzakian and the author

Letters from a Roman Friend
Vahagn Atabekyan, trans. Susan Barba

Letters 'To The Roman'
Mher Arshakyan, trans. Susan Barba

Poetry/Բանաստեղծութիւն; Words/Բառեր  
Tenny Arlen, trans. Jesse S Arlen

Estranged; Photograph of a Dead Star; Death March; My Father on YouTube; Human Rights Violation Request
Arthur Kayzakian

Resurrection; Time; Love Song/Սիրերգութիւն 
Zahrad, trans. Lola Koundakjian

Review Essay

Delimiting Diaspora
Stateless: The Politics of the Armenian Language in Exile - Talar Chahinian
The Armenian Diaspora and Stateless Power: Collective Identity in the Transnational 20th Century - Talar Chaninian, Sossie Kasbarian, and Tsolin Nalbantian, eds
displaced հատում - Ara Oshagan and Krikor Beledian, trans. Taline Voskeritchian and Christopher Millis
Myrna Douzjian

Reviews 

Early Modernity & Mobility: Port Cities and Printers Across the Armenian Diaspora, 1512 - 1800 - Sebouh David Aslanian
Artyom Tonoyan

No Sign - Peter Balakian
Chris McCabe

History of the Armenians, Volumes I and II - Kirakos Gandzakets'i, trans. Robert Bedrosian.
Nik Matheou

In Everything I See Your Hand - Naira Kuzmich
The Fear of Large and Small Nations - Nancy Agabian
Olivia Katrandjian

From the Depths of the Heart: Annotated Translation of the Prayers of St. Gregory of Narek - Abraham Terian, trans.
Yeghishé Charents: Souls on Fire: Selected Poems (A Bilingual Edition) - Tatul Sonentz, trans., Viken Tufenkjian. ed
Eddie Arnavoudian

A Book, Untitled - Shushan Avagyan, trans. Deanna Cachoian-Schanz
Helen Vassallo

Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City - Matthew Teller
Sato Moughalian

The Institute for Other Intelligences - Mashinka Firunts Hakopian
We Are All Armenians: Voices from the Diaspora - Aram Mrjoian, ed
Garen Torikian

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