Nancy Agabian and Aida Zilelian to address “Armenian Trauma and Healing in Contemporary Fiction” in Watertown

WATERTOWN, Mass.—Authors Aida Zilelian and Nancy Agabian will present “Armenian Trauma and Healing in Contemporary Fiction” on Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 2:30 p.m. at the Watertown Free Public Library in the Watertown Savings Bank Room, 123 Main St., Watertown, MA 02472. Register for the event here.

Zilelian, author of All the Ways We Lied, and Agabian, author of The Fear of Large and Small Nations, will read from and discuss their new novels that center on Armenian American intimacies concerning family, relationships and immigration. Both novels deal with intergenerational trauma through echoes of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. To commemorate April 24 (Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day), the authors will also discuss how their fiction facilitates healing.

About the Authors

Agabian is a writer, teacher and literary organizer, working in the intersections of queer, feminist and Armenian American identity. She is the author of the poetry/performance collection Princess Freak (Beyond Baroque Books, 2000) and the memoir Me as her again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (Aunt Lute, 2008). Her novel, The Fear of Large and Small Nations, was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and is available now on Nauset Press.

Zilelian is a first-generation American-Armenian writer, educator and storyteller from Queens, NY. She is the author of The Legacy of Lost Things (2015, Bleeding Heart Publications), which was the recipient of the 2014 Tololyan Literary Award. Aida’s most recently completed novel, All the Ways We Lied, was released in January 2024 (Keylight Books/Turner Bookstore).