Author and Scholar Balakian to Visit Fresno

Staff Report

The Armenian Studies Program, the Armenian General Benevolent Union (Fresno Chapter) and the Fresno Art Museum present a reading by Peter Balakian from his new book Black Dog of Fate, on Sunday, June 1, 1997 at 3:00 PM in the Bonner Auditorium of the Fresno Art Museum. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

Black Dog of Fate is the first major book by an American writer to explore the full arc of the Armenian Genocide and its meaning in the twentieth century. Peter Balakian, prize-winning poet, tells an intensely personal story, a classic coming of age memoir about one family’s and one culture’s survival against great odds. At the center of Balakian’s quintessential baby-boom childhood, set in the affluent suburbs of northern New Jersey, is the dark specter of trauma his ancestors had experienced-the Turkish government’s extermination of over a million Armenians in 1915. With a poet’s wit and deep insight, Balakian explores the intense and often comic collision between his family’s ancient Near Eastern culture and the American pop culture of the 50’s and ’60s.

Balakian moves with ease from childhood memory, to history, to his ancestor’s lives, including an unforgettable portrait of his grandmother, a genocide widow who survived a death march and filed a human rights suit against the Turkish government in 1919, before the modern concept of human rights had been formulated. Written with power and grace, the book unfolds like a tapestry its tale of ultimate survival.”

Balakian, a gifted poet, knows exactly how to bring the pain of the past in to the landscape of the present. Passionate and endearingly personal…an extraordinary book…” Alfred Kazin”This will be a classic among memoirs for what it tells us about the Armenian American story, about the reclaiming of unspeakable personal and family truths, and out the emergence of a powerful, poetic voice.” Robert Jay Lifton”This is a profound and eloquent book that traces the transmutation of painful history into the stuff of literature and moral engagement.” Mary Catherine Bateson

Balakian is a leading spokesman for the Armenian-American community. He is an activist who has spearheaded numerous campaigns to raise awareness about the Armenian Genocide. In the past year Balakian’s petition, “Taking a Stand Against the Turkish Government’s Denial of the Armenian Genocide and Scholarly Corruption in the Academy,” was an important part of the news story about the Turkish government’s most recent effort to manipulate higher education in the United States. Currently he is Professor of English at Colgate University. He is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Dyer’s Thistle, and a book about Theodore Roethke. He lives in Hamilton, New York.