The Vartanush Krikorian Fund for contemporary Armenian Literary Creation & the Freedom to Publish in Turkey
The Fund includes a translation grant whose goal is to promote on an international level Armenian fiction with a contemporary social and/or political resonance in Armenia.
To do so, we:
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select the works of authors of recent Armenian fiction, which meet the above criteria;
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ensure translation into French of the selected works;
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facilitate the publication and dissemination of the said works in partnership with a translator.
In order to promote the vitality of literary creation in the Armenian language, the Fund has taken action to support the revival of the Armenian PEN centre of PEN International. Similarly, the fund enabled Hyestart to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Yerevan Book Fest to support Armenian literature.
In the medium term, the Fund's ambition is to set up, in partnership with Armenian partners in Armenia, creative writing teaching in Armenian in the field of fiction (which has a social and/or political resonance) and to publish or support the publication of the best texts selected at the end of the teaching - which could take the form of writing workshops - by a jury of specialists.
Finally, the Fund supports the freedom to publish in Armenia, and in particular in Turkey where it is threatened more than ever.
The first book supported by the translation grant of the V. Krikorian Fund will be released in July 2020 (Editions Parenthèses). Au-revoir Piaf was written by Aram Pachyan. ISBN: 978-2-86364-356-3
The translation by Anahit Avetissian was made possible by the Vartanouche Krikorian fund.
More about the book:
Au revoir Piaf is not a book about the military world, it's about human relations in a closed environment. "Piaf" is the nickname of one of the protagonists, but also the name of the cat, symbol of freedom through the reference to the bird. Several destinies rub shoulders, with violent human relationships. The narrator has been back for several months, but he is pursued by his memories of an army whose methods have been inherited from the Soviet era, far from the heroic images of young soldiers supposedly guarding the borders of their country. He cannot return to real life, to a normal existence, to work.
All the characters are in turn victims of an oppressive situation. The author reconstructs the picture like a jigsaw puzzle in which he loses the reader and catches up with him, the language oscillating from the first to the second person. Myths, figures and iconic objects are scattered throughout the story: Pink Floyd's Final Cut album, Dürer's engravings, the Ford Mustang, Zidane, Mickey...
Pachyan's characters are sensitive beings, with a rich inner world, who do not blend in with the surrounding society: they are Robinsons. The writer does not try to convey any message, he raises questions.
The book has been translated into English (Good Bye Bird) and will be published in Arabic by Al-Arabi Editions (Cairo). An opera based on the book will be premiered in Munich in 2020 (music by Arsen Babajanyan, choreography by Lyuba Avakova). (source: Ed. Parentheses).
About the author:
Aram Pachyan (born 1983) is the most widely read young writer in Armenia in recent years. Hyestart, which attended the Yerevan Book Fest in November 2019, witnessed that popularity first hand. Aram was first noticed for his short stories published in avant-garde literary magazines. He has become one of the figures of contemporary Armenian literature. After listening to his father, a surgeon, read Jack London, he was nourished by Miller, Musil, Claude Simon, Michel Ange, Bach, Wenders...
Even if he is attached to memory and reminiscences, our time fascinates him, balancing between virtual and reality.
For the Krikorian fund, this release marks the culmination of a great tree year adventure. Other projects are already in the pipeline. We'll keep you informed!