ASA Announces 6th ‘Arthur Halvajian Memorial’ Poetry Competition
The Armenian Students’ Association, Inc. recently announced the start of its 6th annual poetry competition. Once again, the ASA is partnering with the Armenian Poetry Project (APP) for the writing competition named in honor of the late Arthur Halvajian, a former ASA, Inc. trustee who led the board in sponsoring the first competition.
The 2016 competition is now open; the deadline for submissions is May 28, 2016. The competition winners will be announced by the jury in June 2016.
“Over the past five years we have received hundreds of entries from across North America and continue to be impressed with the creativity, quality, and range of poems. We look forward to reaching out to even more communities in the coming months,” said Alice Movsesian, a member of the ASA, Inc. Board of Trustees as well as its liaison to the competition’s organizing committee.
ASA National Board secretary M. Manoog Kaprielian sees the poetry competition as a particularly meaningful window of expression for Armenians who endured as refugees from the Azerbaijani pogroms or from the ongoing war in Syria, and settled throughout the United States and Canada. “We will do all that we can to reach out wherever they may be,” said Kaprielian.
The Armenian Poetry Project, led by poet Lola Koundakjian, is a research and documentation site for 19th– to 21st-century Armenian poems and related topics. Currently containing more than 2,500 poems, it is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. APP has a worldwide following and releases poems through RSS feeds, Twitter, and podcasting.
All individuals of Armenian descent residing in the United States and Canada are invited to submit their work, in English or Armenian. Entries should be e-mailed by May 28, 2016, to ArmenianPoetryProject@gmail.com, with the subject heading “Halvajian ASA/APP Poetry Competition.” Only one poem per individual may be submitted.
The competition groups submissions into three categories: students (ages 12-17), college age (ages 18-22), and adult (ages 23 and older). A top prize will be awarded for each of the categories in the amounts of $75 (students), $125 (college age), and $300 (adult).
Each poem submitted must be accompanied by the author’s full name, age, home address, and telephone number. Students must also include their school name and sponsoring teacher’s telephone number.
To learn more about the Armenian Poetry Project, visit http://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com.
The Armenian Students’ Association of America, Inc. encourages educational pursuits by Armenians in America and the raising of their intellectual standards. It provides financial assistance in the form of scholarships to deserving Armenian students and develops fellowship, cultivating in them the spirit of service in the public interest, and acquainting them and the entire American community with Armenian culture.
Source: Armenian Weekly Mid-West
