December 2nd reading at the Zohrab Center in New York

New York region Armenian poets will celebrate  Shahé Mankerian’s debut poetry collection History of Forgetfulness

Nancy Agabian, Christopher Atamian, Alina Gregorian, Alan Semerdjian, Alina Gharabegian, & Lola Koundakjian will be reading

December 2nd (Thursday), 7:00pm ET IN PERSON

Zohrab Center 

630 Second Avenue

New York, NY 10016-4885

Hamazkayin Eastern Region announces winners of Tölölyan Prize

The Eastern Region Executive of Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society is proud to 
announce the following winners of the 2021 Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature: Dr. Karenn Chutjian Presti for her children’s book in Western Armenian Աստղիկը կ՚)զէ արագ ﬔծնալ and Lola Koundakjian for her bilingual (English and Spanish) collection of poems entitled The moon in the cusp of my hand.

Dr. Presti is an award-winning author, musician, teacher, performer and lecturer at UCLA H. Alpert School of Music. She currently arranges, composes, improvises and plays for the Redondo Ballet. Dr. Presti earned her masters and doctorate degrees at USC, where she was also awarded the Koldofsky  Memorial Music Scholarship, the Briggs Memorial Music Scholarship and the Recognition for Excellence in Collaborative Piano. She graduated with her bachelors degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she was also the recipient of numerous scholarships. Dr. Presti’s musicological work began with her dissertation under Dr. Richard Dekmejian, “The Reality of Social Realism: Socialist Realism and Its Application to Soviet Armenian Composers.” She lectures on nationalism in music and the history of Armenian music.

Koundakjian is an award winning poet, editor and artist living in New York. She is also the founder of the Armenian Poetry Project. In 2020, Nueva York Poetry Press published Koundakjian’s third volume of poetry, The Moon in the Cusp of My Hand/La lune en la cúspide de mi mano. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and has been translated into Arabic, Ukrainian, Asturian, French, Italian and Spanish. Koundakjian holds a masters degree from Columbia University and has participated in many conferences. Her papers have been published in various conference proceedings.

Named after one of the major Armenian literary critics of the second half of the 20th century and his wife, a devoted teacher of that literature for decades, the annually awarded Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature recognizes the work produced by talented writers working in North America.

The prize is intended to encourage new work in all the major genres of literary production, as they are
currently understood in North America.

Reading at Fort Tryon Park in Northern Manhattan

 Lola Koundakjian will be participating in, 

AUTUMN LEAVES, JAZZ & POETRY

October 17 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Free

at Fort Tryon Park, Northern Manhattan

Poetry Readings: 2:00 to 2:45 p.m.

Concert: 3:00 p.m.

Lola Koundakjian joins first ever IALA mentorship program

Lola Koundakjian is serving as a poetry mentor over the course of this summer, beginning July 5, 2021. IALA matched eleven authors to mentees. 

To read more about IALA and its first ever mentorship program, click here. 

Bookstores

 Lola Koundakjian's books are available online at Amazon.com, NAASR bookstore (Belmont, MA) and Abril Books (Glendale, CA)

1. The Accidental Observer (2010). Armenian with English and Spanish translations.

 

A reviewer on Amazon said: Evocative, terse and at the same time richly complex, 'The Accidental Observer' is filled with provocative insights and fascinating meters that ultimately serve to remind us why people fall in love with poetry in the first place. Highly recommended.

2. Advise to a Poet (Peruvian edition 2014; US edition 2015). Armenian with English and Spanish translations. 

 

A graphic novel --  a favorite with children in South America --  it was an Orange Book prize finalist in Armenia in 2012

See a preview at: https://issuu.com/koundakjian/docs/section

3. The Moon in the Cusp of my Hand (2020). English poems with Spanish translations. 

 

Reviewer Raffi Joe Wartanian says: When I met Lola Koundakjian in 2010, I was immediately struck by her boundless sense of joy, her passion for arts and culture, her sophisticated understanding of what makes a good story... Such is the abundant spirit in the pages of her new collection THE MOON IN THE CUSP OF MY HAND.

4. Published in 2020, ՀԱՏԸՆՏԻՐ is a chapbook of Armenian poems.

 

Lola Koundakjian participates in the Bloom Reading Series Season Finale on May 23, 2021

To register for the Bloom Reading Series event on Zoom, May 23rd at 5PM EST, click here:    https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bloom-readings-presents-an-evening-of-poetry-prose-tickets-154084030483?keep_tld=1  An RSVP via Eventbrite is required to attend this event.

Sunday, May 23rd, 5 PM EST BLOOM READINGS  presents on Zoom Elana Bell - Poet Sara Alaica - Short Story Writer Avi Fried - Poet Jennifer Litt - Poet Lola Koundakjian - Poet To register click here:   https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bloom-readings-presents-an-evening-of-poetry-prose-tickets-154084030483?keep_tld=1  An RSVP via Eventbrite is required to attend this event. Bloomreadings.org sponsored by the HVG Community Affairs Committee This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the  New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council

 

Armenian Institute in UK produces a podcast about Lola Koundakjian

Ahead of AI's celebration of Armenian Poetry Project’s 15th anniversary with the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), director Tatevik Ayvazyan chats with founder and poet, Lola Koundakjian.

Fairfax Country, Virginia celebrates Poetry Month

 Lola Koundakjian's poem ENCOUNTER was part of a series celebrating poetry month.

To access it on YOUTUBE, click here.

IALA launches with a smorgasbord of Armenian writers

Lola Koundakjian participated in the launch reading of the International Armenian Literary Alliance, on March 21, 2021 and the event was taped. It is available on http://Youtube.com.

The readers are:

Armen of Armenia
Aram Mrjoian
Marine Petrossian
Alan Semerdjian
Gregory Djanikian
Arlene Avakian
Raffi Joe Wartanian
Nancy Agabian
Nancy Kricorian
Lory Bedikian
J.P. Der Boghossian
Olivia Katrandjian
Lola Koundakjian
Shahé Mankerian
Mashinka Firunts Hakopian
Arminé Iknadossian
Arthur Kayzakian

To learn about IALA and its programs, click this link. 

First Tuesday Reading: March 2, 2021 7:00-9:00 PM EST

 First Tuesdays Presents Lola Koundakjian

Date: March 2, 2021

Time: 7:00 — 9:00 PM EST (Zoom link opens around 6:45)

Where: This will be a virtual First Tuesdays reading. For security purposes, you must click this link in order to register for the event. Once you register, you will receive another email with instructions about joining the reading. 

Lola Koundakjian is an Armenian poet, originally from Beirut, Lebanon, living in New York City since 1979. She writes in Western Armenian and English. Her work has been translated and published worldwide. Lola Koundakjian is the author of three poetry collections: The Accidental Observer (2011 USA), Advice to a Poet, an Orange Book prize finalist in Armenia (2014 Peru; 2015 USA) and The Moon in the Cusp of My Hand (La luna en la cúspide de mi mano) Nueva York Poetry Press (2020).

ENCOUNTER


She sat on the Number 7 train westbound
mouthing words, reading a Korean hangul text,
eyes shut with concentration.

I sat next to her,
our hipbones touching
on the crowded train.

With an overnight bag next to her,
I wondered what the note represented –
a Biblical passage? A speech perhaps?

As travelers descended,
we were left alone in the car.

I finally dared to ask her
what she was reading.

“I am coming from my voice lesson”,
she said, and proceeded to sing

an Italian aria to
an audience of one.

Published in Poems for Mamilla (An Otherworld Press Pamphlet), as well as The Moon in the Cusp of My Hand. 

This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Nueva York Poetry Review feature

Lola Koundakjian was featured in the January edition of Nueva York Poetry Review to coincide with the anniversary of the publication of The Moon in the Cusp of My Hand by Nueva York Poetry Press.