Hamazkayin Eastern Region Presents 2019 Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature

The Regional Executive of Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society of the Eastern United States is pleased to solicit submissions for the sixth annual Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature. As in previous years, two prizes will be awarded: one for a submission in Armenian and one for a submission in the English language.

Minas and Kohar Tölölyan

Named after a devoted and acclaimed literature teacher and a prominent Armenian literary critic of the second half of the twentieth century and his wife, the annual prize will recognize the work produced by talented writers 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, literary and critical essays. Writers in these genres may be considered as candidates for the prize, as long as the authors are of Armenian ancestry, or the work has an Armenian theme or revolves around an Armenian topic.

There will be a modest financial award of $1,500 for each of the two winners.

Judges include Dr. Sima Aprahamian (Montreal), Dr. Vartan Matiossian (New York/New Jersey), Mr. Karen Jallatyan and Ms. Anoush Agnerian (Montreal). Hamazkayin Regional Executive Committee of Eastern USA is grateful to Dr. Kh. Tölölyan for his stewardship of the prize over the past several years. Dr. Aprahamian gracefully agreed to assume the operational responsibilities of the committee, to which she has been a key contributor for the past several years.

Winners will be announced in October of 2019 as a part of Armenian Cultural month. All submissions must be sent electronically to tololyan_award@hamazkayin-usa.org as a PDF file by June 30, 2019. Submissions must be accompanied by the Tölölyan Prize Application form found online, where you can also find the Armenian and English versions of the Rules and Regulations.

Submissions may consist of works published in 2017 or 2018, as well as recent, yet unpublished works.

This award has been made possible by the generosity of Edward and Vergine Misserlian of San Francisco, CA.

The Eastern USA Regional Executive Committee 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 consists of nine chapters in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, Worcester and Washington, DC.

We aim to empower our chapters and membership to nurture and promote Armenian arts and culture. Given our millennia-long history, we are cognizant of the dynamic nature of the concept of identity. To that end, we strive to maintain our identity and heritage while encouraging cultural innovation, and are committed to  furthering the contribution of Armenian culture to the complex tapestry of world civilizations.

Hamazkayin Eastern U.S.
The Eastern USA region of Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society, consisting of nine chapters, constitutes one of the branches of the worldwide Hamazkayin family, founded in 1928.

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