Announcing the winner of the 7th “Arthur Halvajian Memorial” Armenian Poetry Competition - College age category

Congratulations to Elizabeth Minasian who is this year's winner in college age category. 

All this Armenian?

People tell me

What is with you and all this Armenian?

And I tell them, For me,

This Armenian says

Welcome!

Come in have coffee, have tea

Have ​gata ​and have ​chir

This Armenian for me is the music fanatic

you can call Elvina Makarian

an identity-searching art enthusiast dubbed Arshile Gorky

and the knowledge thirsty, language pundit some know as Khachatur Abovyan

This Armenian for me is the hard-working, passionate, hearty, yet underrepresented being

This Armenian for me is the lover of ​hogh yev jur

The admirer of motherland and fatherland

This Armenian for me is community

Intertwined into one, small, dynamic being

This Armenian for me is William Saroyan, who wanted to

Erase his roots but could not

This Armenian for me is Komitas 

who built our national music
through seemingly insignificant human steps

Resulting a universal leap

This Armenian for me is Garegin Nzhdeh,
Davit Bek,
Kevork Chavush
The ordinary soldier
Fighters, Persisters, Protectors

This Armenian for me is the brave 

Journalist, who empowers diverse 

people with a composition notebook and
a plane ticket

This Armenian for me is 

a Modest poet
trying to get a few people to change 

their views, and learn a thing
Or two

Thus, before I leave, I tell them,

The Armenian for me is what it should be for you

Announcing the winner of the 7th “Arthur Halvajian Memorial” Armenian Poetry Competition - Student category

The winner in the Students category (ages 12-17) is Sophie Youssefian for her sonnet, Dreams.

Dreams

Dreams are things that people hold on to,
and with bare hands I carry my dreams with me,
but dreams leave scars, maybe one or two,
good thing they heal when I set them free.
The constellation formed a magical heart,
and the bright sun slowly fades in the west.
Nothing in the world can tear this apart
because this scene is probably the best.
The happy pictures of us were shattered,
and your sweet laugh still lingers in my heart.
But our constellation hadn't mattered
because our hurting dreams tore us apart.
And all stars eventually have to die,
but our sad stars had already gone by.


Congratulations to the winner! Ms Youssefian is a sixth grade student at St. Gregory's A. & M. Hovsepian School, Pasadena, California. Many thanks to Shahé Mankerian, Principal.

Reminder: Our annual poetry writing competition ends soon

As in the past six years, the ASA, Inc. is partnering the Armenian Poetry Project for the writing competition named in honor of the late Arthur Halvajian. The 2017 competition is now open and the deadline for submissions is April 30. The competition winners will be announced by the jury in May 2017.

All individuals of Armenian descent, residing in the United States and Canada are invited to submit their work in English or Armenian for the competition. Entries should be e-mailed by April 30, 2017 to ArmenianPoetryProject@gmail.com with the subject heading “Halvajian ASA/APP Poetry competition”. Only one original unpublished 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 US $75 (students), $125 (college age), and $300 (adult).

Each poem submitted for the competition must be accompanied by the author’s full name, age, and home address/telephone number. Students must include school name and sponsoring teacher’s telephone number. You can learn more about the Armenian Poetry Project by visiting http://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com.