Lucine Kasbarian, friend and fellow writer, reported enthusiastically last year about the reception her books received at the Armenian
Pavilion at the London Book Fair.
Thanks to the efforts of London’s Armenian community, Armenian
authors were showcased at one of the largest and most important events in
publishing. At Lucine’s suggestion, I made a note to check into this year’s
fair to see if there’d be a similar arrangement.
Of course, that note got swamped among a zillion others in
my to-do pile as I tended to details of publishing and publicizing Stories My Father Never Finished Telling Me.
So I was caught a bit off guard by news that the 2015 London Book Fair is almost upon us (April 14-16) and that, sure enough, there will be an Armenian
Pavilion. It will be even more prominent, as this is an important year for all
Armenians—and writers have an essential role in telling the Armenian story with
one loud and clear voice.
This extraordinary opportunity has prompted creation of an
Armenian-American Writers Guild, allowing authors from this country to support
each other and share the cost of exhibiting their works to this influential audience
of publishers, agents and book sellers.
Last minute or not, I’m in.
In fact, I agreed to attend the fair as a representative
of the American contingent. It’s all still taking shape, so details will be
coming later. But I’m excited for all the obvious reasons, plus a few more.
It was clear from the moment we started our hurried
preparations that Robyn and I couldn’t go to London without hopping across the
Channel to visit my cousins in Paris. But why stop there?
We’ve fiddled about whether to go to Armenia for years, but
this is quite clearly the right time as we’ll be on the correct side of the
Atlantic in time for the April 24th Genocide centennial
commemoration.
So we’ve booked a flight from Paris to Yerevan, where we’ll join
company—and hands—with Armenians from around the world.
Let's try this again ... I think I just made a comment then inadvertently deleted it?? Said something to the effect that ... Reading this post made me cry in wishing that I could be there on the 24th as well. Hoping to at least make it to Boston to go to church, stop at the cemetery where my grandparents are buried and maybe attend the services at the State House or Armenian Heritage Park. Have a wonderful trip! If I thought we'd ever actually run into each other, I'd ask you to bring me back a handful of soil. :(
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