Armenians
THEIR GROUNDBREAKING CONTRIBUTIONS REFLECT A LEGACY OF INNOVATION THAT CONTINUES TO INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS
Peter Balakian
Author
Bio
Peter Balakian (born 1951 in Teaneck, New Jersey) is an award-winning author. He holds a BA from Bucknell University, a master’s from New York University, and a PhD from Brown University.
Balakian is the author of five books of poems, including June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974-2000. His poems have appeared in several magazines and journals as well as anthologies such as New Directions in Prose and Poetry.
Balakian earned international acclaim with his prose work Black Dog of Fate (1997), which won the PEN/Albrand Prize. His other major work, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response (2003), received the Raphael Lemkin Prize.
Balakian is also an accomplished editor and literary translator. He co-founded and co-edited (with Bruce Smith) the poetry magazine Graham House Review, and translated (with Nevart Yaghlian) Armenian poet Siamanto’s Bloody News From My Friend.
Balakian has taught at Colgate University since 1980. He is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar professor of the humanities and director of Colgate’s Creative Writing Program. He was the first director of Colgate’s Center for Ethics and World Societies.
Balakian is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.