Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Armenian Literary Star Wins Russian Award

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Armenian Literary Star Wins Russian Award

    ARMENIAN LITERARY STAR WINS RUSSIAN AWARD

    Voice of Russia
    April 14 2010

    Mariam Petrosian, a young Armenian writer, has won the "Russian Award"
    for her book "The House, Where...".

    The Russian Award literary competition was established for foreign
    authors writing in Russian. Although she is hardly known in our
    country, Russians have already got acquainted with Mariam Petrosian's
    book. In 2009, the novel was shortlisted for the "Big Book Prize",
    the Russian national award for literature. An uncommon decision, given
    that it is the first book by Mariam Petrosian, who is a cartoonist,
    not a professional writer.

    It took her 10 year to finish the book, which she dedicated to
    handicapped children living in boarding schools. She told the Voice
    of Russia how she chose this subject:

    "It was the economically unstable situation in Armenia in the 90s that
    gave me the impulse to write. When facing a boring life, people can
    chose a wide range of activities, which they have never been engaged
    in. Writing first became my hobby".

    The physical disabilities of the novel's central characters naturally
    result in their isolation from the world. A house is a kind of
    protective covering for these children, not accepted by their peers
    due to their peculiar individuality. Literary critics are sure that
    humanity is inevitably moving towards this model of a new world, where
    moral problems will fade into insignificance. There is a conflict of
    strength and weakness, solitude and the "herd instinct", simplicity
    and complexity... Mariam Petrosian looks upon these problems with a
    different eye, as compared to her literary characters:

    "For me, a house is a utopian place with the cult of friendship and
    a closed community, a place where family units are built. A house
    symbolizes youth, while outside we will face an adult life. The
    problem is to find a pathway from children to grown-ups".

    The jury of the "Russian Award" chose Mariam Petrosian as the winner
    of the competition. Sergei Chuprinin, the chairman of the jury,
    has this to say:

    "We were deeply impressed by the way the author treated the novel's
    tragic plot. The complex composition form of this undoubtedly vivid
    book serves to reveal the sincerity of both the characters and the
    young author".

    Among other winners of the "Russian Award" are US-based Maria
    Timatkova, Alisher Niyazov residing in Kyrgyzstan and Moldavian
    philologist and poet Olesya Rudyagina.
Working...
X