Aaron Poochigian

poet and translator

Here is an interview with Aaron Poochigian about "The Cosmic Purr" and his upcoming reading at the UND Writers Conference: http://hpr1.com/feature/article/a_conversation_with_aaron_poochigian/

Justine Picardie: http://justine-picardie.blogspot.com/2010/06/of-roses-and-feasts.html
 

The venerable New England Poetry Club offers an annual award "for an unpublished poem (not a translation) worthy of Daniel Varoujan, a poet killed by the Turks in the genocide which destroyed three-fourths of the Armenian population."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,

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:
 

I was delighted to discover that my 34 syllable homage to a late mentor (a very difficult man) has traveled so widely beyond its original journal appearance:
 
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/183127
 
http://jpicforum.info/forum/lo-fi/t-6996.html
 
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue11/TheVigil.html
 

"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,

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

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.

. . . 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