Blogs

Poochigian Wins the New England Poetry Club Varoujan Award

The venerable New England Poetry Club offers an annual award "for an unpublished poem (not a translation) worthy of Daniel Varoujan, a poet killed by the Turks in the genocide which destroyed three-fourths of the Armenian population."
 
Here is a link: http://www.nepoetryclub.org/contests2011.htm
 
I am honored to be a 2011 winner of this award for my poem "The Parlor" (aka "Ottoman") in the book "The Cosmic Purr":
 
Nothing was an heirloom. We had none,

"The Cosmic Purr" Released (Print and E-book)

Well, here we are. "The Cosmic Purr" is out at last, and I have been glad to hear that my free-verse poet friends have enjoyed it as much as the formalists.
 
It is available through Able Muse Press:
 
http://www.ablemusepress.com/aaron-poochigian-cosmic-purr#book_order_info
 
Amazon:
 

Poochigian's "Cosmic Purr" to be released in Spring of 2012

"The appearance of Aaron Poochigian's The Cosmic Purr marks the debut of a poet of distinctive voice and impressive formal accomplishment."
 
                                                                                  Charles Martin
 
Here, for a taste, is Reunion Show, first published in the Dark Horse:
 
Reunion Show
 
Remember rage the way we used to love it
and what mad masks we wore when we began.
Think of the shrieking eagle on our van,
the decal, with its wings aflame,

Poochigian's "Jason and the Argonauts" to be released Jan. 2013

Penguin Classics USA has scheduled the release of Apollonius' "Jason and the Argonauts" (translated by Aaron Poochigian) for early January 2013.
 
Here's a taste and a link to an excerpt on the NEA website:
 
http://www.nea.gov/features/writers/writersCMS/writer.php?id=11_15
 
Jason on the Field of Ares
 
Soon as his shipmates bound the hawsers, Jason
vaulted ashore and swaggered to the lists,
on one arm shield and spear, and in the other

Poochigian Aeschylus in NYC

I have just learned that I will have the pleasure of working with the Faux Real Theater Company on a production for NYC's Summer Stage Performance series.  Last year was a romp.  Here are some pics and reviews:
 
“Though women offend you, heed us just this once” – Written in 467 BC, Seven Against Thebes is one of the oldest extant plays in the world. Faux-Real’s SummerStage Performance is the world premiere of a brash new translation of Aeschylus’ classic by NEA recipient Aaron Poochigian.

Poochigian Sappho in Books & Culture, A Christian Review

. . . one finds a most alluring sexual confidence, speaking with coy accusation of past experiences and how vulnerable we are to the next one: "You will have memories / Because of what we did back then / When we were new at this, // Yes, we did many things then, all / Beautiful …" The best compliment I can pay to this new edition is this: it grants that appeal of Sappho when she asks, "Lyre, be voluble."
 
                                                        Brett Foster, Books & Culture, a Christian Review
 

More Praise for the Poochigian Aeschylus

"Persians, a new translation by the American scholar and poet Aaron Poochigian, does a fine job maintaining the gravitas of Greek tragedy with just enough contemporary rhythm and idiom to allow the ancient work to work for a modern audience."
                                                                           David Zampati, Theater Critic
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/arts/12928173/review-persians/

Review: Persians

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