EWING, N.J.—Peter Balakian, the award-winning author of the College of New Jersey’s summer reading book, Black Dog of Fate, addressed students and faculty at the college’s annual Community Learning Day on Oct. 7. The memoir was required reading for 1,280 incoming students.
Balakian, whose book dovetails with the college’s academic theme for 2009-10 (“The Family”), spoke to students in the Kendall Auditorium at noon and answered questions regarding his work.
At 1:30 p.m., Balakian did a book-signing in the library auditorium, followed by a panel discussion about his memoir with faculty (moderated by English professor David Blake).
Balakian also gave a reading of his poems to open the two-day event on Tues., Oct. 6. The Committee for Cultural and Intellectual Community (CCIC), which assembles broadly themed academic programs each year, chose Black Dog of Fate as the literary centerpiece of this year’s program. The memoir tells the story of a New Jersey boy uncovering his family’s experiences during the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
Balakian is the author of many books including The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, which won the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize and was a New York Times bestseller, and is the co-translator with Aris Sevag of Grigoris Balakian’s Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide. Black Dog of Fate won the 1998 PEN/Albrand Award for memoir, was a New York Times Notable Book, and has been re-issued in a 10th anniversary edition. Balakian is Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University.
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