Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Photo: Barlow Der Mugrdechian
Staff Report
The works of thirteen prominent writers, including Krikor Zohrab and Daniel Varoujan, were brought to life before a rapt audience at a lecture by Dr. Herand Markarian held on Friday, May 15, for the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State, in conjunction with the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society.
The evening was a fitting conclusion to a series of community activities organized on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Six students and community members: Kevork Ajamian, Barret Arakelian, Mary Ekmalian, Barbara Mortanian, Bagrad Oganyan, and Hagop Ohanessian participated in the event by reading excerpts from Dr. Markarian’s new anthology, The Martyred Armenian Writers: Armenian Writers 1915-1922, which surveys the lives and writings of thirteen authors who were killed during the Genocide–several of them on the night of April 24, 1915.
The authors included in the Anthology and other community leaders, intellectuals, and clergy were rounded up and deported from Constantinople, never to be seen again. The 246-page book is an important addition to the works of Armenian authors translated into English.
Organized in three parts, the Anthology includes a general introduction to 19th century Western Armenian literature and to the Genocide. Part two is concentrated on the accounts of the Genocide and on maps of the sites of many of the mass killings. The main focus of the book is in part three, which contains short biographies of some of the most beloved Western Armenian writers of the era, along with a bibliography of their writings. Dr. Markarian has also provided a sample of excerpts from the works of each author, all translated into English.
Dr. Markarian is a scientist, playwright, poet, theater specialist, literary critic, director and actor.
Since 1967, Dr. Markarian has been the director of the New York Theater Group of Hamazkayin. He is the author of 27 plays, 24 of them in Armenian, two in English, and one, in English and Armenian.