26.10.12

Hamazkayin Announces New Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature

The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society of the Eastern United States this week announced the establishment of the Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature. 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 prize will recognize the work produced by talented writers working in North America.
The prize is intended to encourage new work in the major genres of literary production, as they are currently understood in North America. In this expanded understanding, poetry, short stories, novels, and drama are included, as are works of creative non-fiction—a genre that includes memoirs, as well as personal, descriptive, and literary critical essays. Representatives of these genres may be offered as candidates for the prize. Work in Armenian, English, French, and Spanish will be considered, as long as the authors are of Armenian ancestry, or the work has an Armenian theme or revolves around an Armenian topic.
The primary purpose of the Tölölyan Prize is to encourage and offer recognition through the award and ensuing publicity to those who wish to write about Armenian themes and topics.
The jury charged with judging the submissions is comprised of Dr. Sima Aprahamian (Montreal), Dr. Vartan Matiossian (New York/New Jersey), Gourgen Arzoumanian (California), Yervant Kotchounian (California) and Prof. Khachig Tölölyan (Connecticut).
The winner of the prize, and its modest financial award of $2,500, will be announced at Hamazkayin’s Annual Pan Gathering in early May, with the first award to be presented in Boston on May 2013. All submissions must either be e-mailed to tololyan_award@hamazkyain-usa.org as a PDF file (highly encouraged) or in hard-copy format to the Hamazkayin Tololyan Prize Committee, 80 Bigelow Ave, Watertown, MA 02472, by Dec. 31, 2012.
Submissions may consist of work published either in 2011 or 2012. Recent work that has yet to be published may also be submitted.
This award has been made possible by the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Edward and Vergine Misserlian of San Francisco, Calif.
The Eastern USA region of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society, a 501 c (3) not for profit organization, constitutes one of the branches of the worldwide Hamazkayin family, founded in 1928. Headquartered in Massachusetts, it consists of eight chapters in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, and Washington, D.C.
To learn more, visit hamazkayin-usa.org/main/HamazkayinEasternRegion.aspx.

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