Dallas Morning News
Originally Posted: March 13, 2015
When Peter Balakian was a small boy, his grandmother filled him with stories seeped in magical realism, with mysterious yet baffling lines.
“A long time ago there was and there wasn’t,” she’d say.
Perhaps his tender grandmother was just nurturing a fellow poet and soon-to-be historian of one of the great epic traumas opening the 20th century. She was a survivor of the Armenian genocide 100 years ago in April 1915.
Her grandson would eventually become her scribe, portraying her in his award-winning memoir, Black Dog of Fate.
Balakian, now a Colgate University professor, has made the genocide a key part of his life’s work as an award-winning writer, poet and genocide expert. He will talk about his work at Southern Methodist University’s Dallas Hall at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at an event sponsored by St. Sarkis Church of Carrollton and SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program.
He recently discussed his writing and more with The Dallas Morning News. READ MORE