Diana Der-Hovanessian

Books

Diana Der Hovanessian's books can be bought from Amazon.com,
Sheep Meadow Pressand other booksellers.

 
POETRY
 
 
NowISeeIt
NOW I SEE IT, Cervená Barva Press, 2011

Her poetry still blazes!" — D.M. Thomas
 
 
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DANCING AT THE MONASTERY, New York, Sheep Meadow Press, 2011

A sense of humor, often dry and ironic, streams through her poems like sunlight, illuminating, in its fashion, how death is escaped.
— Mary Buchinger Bodwell in Rattle
 
 

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If you think you don't like poetry, The Second Question will quickly change your mind; if you're already a hopeless poetry addict, you'll be lavishly rewarded.    
—X.J. Kennedy
 

 
 

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This book reminds us what the true and the beautiful are in poetry.
—D.M. Thomas
 
 

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When I came upon these poems first I was bowled over. This is what poetry can do but very rarely ever has done.   —May Sarton

 
 

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winner of the Paterson Prize
I feel her poems in me, the sense of destruction and unquenchable life, of creativity and genocide, fragmentation and connectedness. They are profoundly touching, heart reaching.   —Adrienne Rich
 
 

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nominated for the Pulitzer Prize

Diana Der-Hovanessian's poems come from the collision of two cultures. Hyphenated Americans choose to remember or to forget. She has determined to bring the rich and tortured past into the present. She brings to life the experience of Armeniathat country whose existence is mythical and historical and warred over even right nowwiped out in blood and reborn in blood. She writes just as well of the common stuff of being a woman in Boston, growing up, loving, losing, examining family ties. Her poetry is emotional, direct but tightly woven... 

Marge Piercy

 

 
 

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I have been reading with admiration, even wonder, these touching and absorbing poems. (She has) to be sure a wonderful, even fearful subject; but knowing what to make of that, and how to make it art, is another and rarer matter.  
—James Merrill
 
 

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A striking and original artist who is also the foremost translator or Armenian poetry.  
—Herbert A. Kenny, Boston Globe Book Editor
 
 
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Strong poems in a strong voice. It is this voice that makes the book a rare first book because it sings so clearly, so cleanly, so individually ... compelling, funny, sad, moving, doing all the things poems are supposed to do and usually don’t. 
—Joel Oppenheimer
 
A rare and awesome talent.   William Saroyan
 
 

 

BOOKS TRANSLATED INTO ARMENIAN
 
 
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VERATARSI OR (DAY OF RETURNING), Yerevan Armenia, 2000
Edited by M. Mkrtchian, L. Ananyan
Translated by leading Armenian peots
 
 
 

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VALLEY OF FLOWERS, Yerevan, Armenia, Nayirie Press, 1994
Forward by Maro Markarian and Medakse
Translations by leading Armenian poets
 
 
 

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INSIDE GREEN EYES, BLACK EYES, Selected Poems of Diana Der-Hovanessian, Yerevan, Armenia, Soviet Press, 1986
Introduction by Gevorg Emin
Translated by Vahakn Davtian, Arevshad Avakian, Gevork Emin, Hovhannes Grigoryan, Artashes Emin, and Medakse
 
 
 
 
TRANSLATIONS
 
 

ArmPoetryofourTimes

 
 
ARMENIAN POETERY OF OUR TIMES
The Press, California State University,Fresno, 2011

For years we (the English speaking Armenians) heard what a wonderful literature we Armenians had. But it was not until Diana Der-Hovanessian’s translations that we had concrete evidence... There is a kind of genius at work here, the way she makes each voice so individual.   Nona Balakian, N.Y.Times critic

 
 
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A wonderful bridge between her two cultures.   —F.D. Reeve
 
 
 
ST. GREGORY NAREGATSI, with Thomas Samuelian, Yerevan Armenia, VEM Press
 
 
 

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ACROSS BUCHAREST IN THE RAIN, selected poems of Maria Banus, Princeton, NJ, Quarterly Review of Literature, winner of QRL prize
 
MARIA BANUS, selections from the Romanian, New Orleans, LA, Die Young Press
[Maria Banus] has a brave, quirky, audacious modern voice that has found the perfect translator in Der-Hovanessian.  Jesse Glass
 
 

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Read Kouchag and rejoice!   William Saroyan
 
 

ForYouOnNewYearsDay


FOR YOU ON NEW YEARS DAY, poems of Gevorg Emin, forward by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Athens, Ohio, Ohio University Press, 1986

Emin’s poems are like transparent watches where the movements and direction of each gear and lever are visible. But it is a watch that keeps perfect time. Precision is one of the conditions of authentic art.   —Yevgeny Yevtushenko

 
 
 
SELECTED POEMS OF GEVORG EMIN, Pittsburgh International Poetry Series, 1985
 
 
 

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The striking thing about Derian’s poetry is its music, the hardest thing to translate...    Again Diana Der-Hovanessian  has moved the work of an important Armenian poet into English. Again it seems natural and effortless, and this is the mark of her talent.   —Jack Antreassian

 
 
 
(The four below translated by DDH, edited with M. Margosian)
 
 

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LAND OF FIRE, Selected Poems of Eghishe Charents, Ardis Press, Ann Arbor, 1986 Ann Arbor, Michigan, winner of Armand Erpf and Van De Bovenkamp prize for excellence in literary translation.
Charents is the father of modern Armenian poetry. Diana Der-Hovanessian is a worthy daughter of its traditions… In Armenia where we call our women poets "poetess," we call Diana  "poet;" her poems and translations are as strong as any man’s.   Vahakn Tavtian
 
 

The Arc

 
THE ARC, poems of Shen Ma (Archbishop Torkom Manoogian),
St. Vartan Press, NY, 1983
 
 
 

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SACRED WRATH, Poems of Vahan Tekeyan, New York, Ashod Press, 1982, forward by Peter Sourian, introduction by Victor Howes

In the poems of Vahan Tekeyan (in this volume) you will discover a poet of tender passion, wry humor and burning vision.   —Victor Howes

 
 

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Wonderful.   Roman Jacobsen

 

 Diana Der-Hovanessian is a brilliant poet who has opened up the book of her people to the English speaking world.   D.M. Thomas in the London Times Literary Supplement