Saturday, October 22, 2022

Participation in Buenos Aires' International Poetry Festival

Lola Koundakjian was an invited poet at the XVI FIP Festival Internacional de Poesía de Buenos Aires. 

Lola read her Armenian poems three times during the festival: 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12 at  the Inauguration of the FIP, Usina del Arte Agustín R. Caffarena 1, C1157 CABA.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14TH in the gardens of Museo Sívori Av. Infanta Isabel 555 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 15 18:00 h. at the closing ceremony at the Society of Writers of Argentina -SEA-. Bartolomé Mitre 2815, 2nd floor, offices 226 to 230 

Ana Arzoumanian was the reader of the Spanish translations. 













Wednesday, August 17, 2022

A Literary Evening: Armenian Writers in New York

Join the Zohrab Information Center and the International Armenian Literary Alliance for an in-person literary evening on August 23, 2022 at 7:00 pm ET, to hear Armenian writers read from their short stories, novels, poetry and nonfiction.

Readers include Aida Zilelian, Alan Semerdjian, Garen Torikian, Jesse Arlen, Lola Koundakjian, Nadia Owusu, Nancy Agabian, Nancy Kricorian, and Olivia Katrandjian. A wine and cheese reception will follow.



At Guild Hall of the Armenian Diocese, 630 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10016

Saturday, July 23, 2022

Podcast in New York: Poetry! What is it good for?

Lola had a lot of fun participating in this podcast, with fellow authors Anton Yakovlev and Rachel Aydt

To hear the podcast click on this link!






Saturday, July 09, 2022

SUMMER BLOSSOMS: POETRY & JAZZ

July 10 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Free

Event Navigation


Join the Fort Tryon Park Trust, poets, and Jazz WaHI for an afternoon of music and spoken word. Hear poetry inspired by Fort Tryon Park by local poets and participants of Uptown Stories. A jazz quintet of piano, bass, drums, saxophone, and a vocalist will perform in celebration of summer. This concert is in honor of Nereida Delgado.

2:00 p.m. Poetry readings
2:30 p.m. Jazz concert
Featured poets include:
Jane LeCroy
Christopher Atamian
Lola Koundakjian
Ellen Hagan
Student poets from Uptown Stories
Rain date: July 17

Website:
forttryonparktrust.org

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Reading Daniel Varoujan's work

Lola Koundakjian participated in a virtual reading for Peace held at Piccolo Museo della Poesia Chiesa di San Cristoforo and on Zoom on March 27, 2022. 

Lola read Antasdan by Daniel Varoujan in Armenian and English. 



Sunday, March 13, 2022

POETS BUILDING BRIDGES DAY

On Sat Mar 13 2022, Armenia was on the program of the prestigious Poets Building Bridges: A World Poetry Day Triangulation Project.

Led by MC George Wallace and comperes Antje Stehn and Lola Koundakjian, this event was hosted by Cultivating Voices Live Poetry and Don Krieger.

The Youtube video can be accessed here.



Order of presentation:



Saturday, March 05, 2022

Neuronautic Institute reading at KGB Bar NYC



March 24th, 2022 - 7:00 PM - 12:00 AM





Just come on in! It's March and all the ol' in/out should have you wanting poetry.

We have 3 features, each with something to say:

David Belmont
Pete Dolack
Lola Koundakjian (Լօլա Գունտաքճեան)

& of course, as always, the most vibrant open mic you could hope for.

Bios:

DAVID BELMONT is a mixed media artist and community organizer. He writes poetry, memoir and short fiction. World Gone Zoom: Notes from the American Epicenter, his debut poetry collection, was published by The Poetry Box in May 2021. Other writing has appeared in The Poeming Pigeon, Wildflower Muse and FishFood Magazine. David has been a professional musician for over 50 years, producing 26 albums of his own work. His CD WindWater Excursions spent 8 months on the New Age Voice Top 100 Airplay List and was in heavy rotation on the syndicated radio program Echoes. He is currently the co-music director of the Castillo Theatre on West 42nd Street. He lives on the Upper West Side with visual artist Kim Svoboda and their labradoodle Penelope.


PETE DOLACK is an activist, poet, writer and photographer who wishes he could keep all those balls in the air but, alas, keeps dropping some of them. When he is wearing his poet’s hat, he is the author of the chapbook And Now A Word From Our Sponsors, and writes about space, time, travel and the sad state of the world through satire. Pete’s poetry has been published in 35 publications, including Will Work For Peace anthology, Poetrybay, Blue Collar Review, Lummox, Appleseeds anthology and Tribes. When he is wearing a different hat, Pete writes the Systemic Disorder blog and is the author of the book It's Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment.

LOLA KOUNDAKJIAN is a writer, editor and translator born in Beirut, Lebanon and living in New York City since 1979. After pursuing degrees in Fine Arts and History, Lola honed her skills as an editorial board member at the Ararat Literary Quarterly. She has four poetry collections in Armenian and English. She runs the Dead Armenian Poetry Society and the online Armenian Poetry Project. Since 2010, she read at five international poetry festivals. Her work appears in various journals and international anthologies. www.lolakoundakjian.com

Have a cocktail

Have a listen

Join in if you're so inclined

see you there

As always this is 21 and up, and now Vaccine proof is required, boosters preferred, and masks suggested. We want these events to be as safe as possible to everyone involved.

no cover, 2 drink minimum.

Note: this is NOT an accessible venue, it is up 1 flight of stairs




KGB bar

85 e 4th st

NYC

I hope to see you there, this month, and every month that follows.

Thursday, November 18, 2021

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


Thursday, October 21, 2021

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.

Saturday, October 16, 2021

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.








Saturday, July 10, 2021

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. 

Wednesday, June 09, 2021

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.

 



Thursday, May 13, 2021

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

 

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

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.

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

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. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

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.

Saturday, January 23, 2021

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.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Lola Koundakjian on her latest book

"In 2020, Nueva York Poetry Press published my third poetry collection, The Moon in the Cusp of my Hand. I enjoy the small things in life such as orchids and long walks in the woods, where I watch the birds and say hello to various small mammals preparing for hibernation.

What Covid-19 has done is make us aware that these are wonderful habits to go back to, that this new-normal is okay. 

As Flaubert famously wrote to Turgenev in 1877: At times, it feels like I am being drained of blood from all limbs and that my death is imminent. And then I spring back, and off I go. (translation from the French by LK). These observations, and my passion for arts and culture, made me a poet after many years dedicated to the visual arts and they are evident in my third collection of poetry published earlier this year in English with Spanish translations. 

I have been nourished with a storyteller’s spirit thanks to my parents, who knew how to live, to travel, and especially, how to be curious. Our homes in Beirut, and later in New York City, were filled with books. 

In this collection’s first section, An Anthropology of Emotions, I tackle my mother's Alzheimer’s, the imprints of New York City, my neighborhood and the quotidian of my life. The second section, Traveling around the Sun in the speed of Life, is about my love of discovery, of other cultures, the loss of my heritage -- which unfortunately continues to be pillaged with a war between the Republic of Armenia and its neighboring Azerbaijan -- and my activism for Peace. The book is dedicated to Teachers, Poets and Lovers, for we are nothing in this Life, without them.” 

Sunday, November 08, 2020

Reading for ARTS for Artsakh


 


















The full program is below:
https://www.armenianinstitute.org.uk/events/arts-for-artsakh