PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-489-1610
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Marc A. Mamigonian
DAVID KHERDIAN AND NONNY HOGROGIAN TO DISCUSS NEW BOOKS AT NAASR
The acclaimed husband and wife team of author David Kherdian and
author/illustrator Nonny Hogrogian will discuss and read from their
new books on Thursday evening, November 4, at 8:00 p.m., at the Center
and Headquarters of the National Association for Armenian Studies and
Research (NAASR), 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, Mass. This event marks
the couple’s first Boston-area appearance in many years.
Between them, Kherdian and Hogrogian have written, edited, or
illustrated over one hundred books. Their work has encompassed the
Armenian Genocide, life in America as first-generation Armenians,
children’s books, memoirs in verse and prose, folklore, and the
mystical teachings of Gurdjieff.
Acclaimed Poet, Memoirist, Translator
Kherdian is well known as the author of the Newberry Award Winner The
Road From Home: The Story of An Armenian Girl, which detailed his
mother’s experiences in surviving the Armenian Genocide. Read by
students and adults alike, it has contributed greatly to increasing
awareness of the Genocide.
He has been widely recognized as one of the most important and
distinctive voices in Armenian-American poetry for nearly four
decades. The title poem to his collection On the Death of My Father
was praised by William Saroyan as “one of the best lyric poems in
American poetry.” Kherdian has also memorably chronicled his youth
growing up in Racine, Wisconsin, and his experiences as an Armenian
American in such works as Homage to Adana, Friends: A Memoir, I
Remember Root River, The Dividing River/The Meeting Shore, and My
Racine, among many others.
New Book of Ancient Poems
Kherdian’s newest book is The Song of the Stork and Other Early and
Ancient Armenian Songs, a spirited translation of an important
collection of poems first compiled and published by the Mekhitarist
priest and scholar Levond Alishan in Venice in 1850. Kherdian writes
of these songs/poems that “their humility and troubled faith draws a
response from that place in us that is reserved for the essential and
true – from our own unspoiled reservoir of spirit, that understands
what has been lost and can yet be regained.” The book features
illustrations by Nonny Hogrogian.
Award Winning Author-Illustrator
Nonny Hogrogian has twice won children’s literature’s highest honor,
the Caldecott Medal, for her books Always Room for One More and One
Fine Day. Her illustrations to Virginia Tashjian’s Armenian folktale
collections Once There Was and Was Not and Three Apples Fell from
Heaven and her husband’s retelling of the Armenian tale The Golden
Bracelet are beloved by several generations of Armenian children.
Hogrogian’s newest book, Finding My Name, is a memoir of her first
thirteen years growing up in the Bronx, New York. It explores both
her efforts to find herself as a budding artist and the joys and
difficulties of growing up as an Armenian-American torn between two
cultures.
Following the authors’ talk and a question-and-answer period, they
will be available to sign copies of not only their new titles but also
selected older titles as well.
Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR
bookstore will open at 7:30 p.m. The NAASR Center and Headquarters is
located opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the U.S. Post
Office. Ample parking is available around the building and in
adjacent areas.