WATERTOWN—The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society of Eastern United States is pleased to solicit submissions for the second annual Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature. This year, two prizes, one for the Armenian language submissions and one for the English language submissions, will be awarded as the winners 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 Twentieth 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 all 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 all included, but so are works of creative non-fiction, a genre that includes memoirs, as well as personal, descriptive and literary critical essays. Representatives of all these genres may be offered as candidates for the prize. Work in Armenian and English will be considered, as long as the authors are of Armenian ancestry, and/or the work has an Armenian theme or revolves around an Armenian topic.
The primary purpose of the Prizes is to encourage and offer recognition through the award and through the ensuing publicity for those who wish to write about Armenian themes and topics. There will also be a modest financial award of $1,500 each for the Armenian and English language awards.
The jury judging all submissions will consist of Dr. Sima Aprahamian (Montreal), Dr. Vartan Matiossian (New York/New Jersey), Mr. Gourgen Arzoumanian (California), Mr. Yervant Kotchounian (California) and Prof. Khachig Tölölyan (Connecticut).
The Prizes will be announced at Hamazkayin’s Annual Pan Gathering in May of 2014.
All submissions must be sent electronically to tololyan_award@hamazkayin-usa.org as a PDF file (highly encouraged) or in hard copy format to Hamazkayin Tololyan Prize Committee at 80 Bigelow Ave, Watertown, MA 02472, by January 31, 2014. All submissions must be accompanied by the Tololyan Prize online application found here. The Armenian and English versions of the Rules and Regulations of the Award can also be found at the above link.
Submissions may consist of work published either in 2012 or 2013. 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 & Vergine Misserlian of San Francisco, California.
The Eastern USA region of 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. The Eastern United States region, headquartered in Massachusetts, consists of eight chapters in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Providence and Washington, DC.
Hamazkayin aims to empower its chapters and membership to nurture and promote Armenian arts and culture. Given our millennia long history, Hamazkayin is cognizant of the dynamic nature of the concept of identity. To that end, it strives to maintain identity and heritage while encouraging cultural innovation, and is committed to further the contribution of Armenian culture to the complex tapestry of world civilizations.
