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Armenian Authors

Let’s Get Back to the Party

by Zak Salih

Estranged childhood friends Oscar and Sebastian-both too young to have a personal relationship with the AIDS crisis but too old to have enjoyed the freedom of an out adolescence-spend a year grappling with cultural identity, generational change, and what they see in, and owe to, each other.

Giovanni’s Room

by James Baldwin

In a novel that has resonated with the queer community since it was first published decades ago, a young man finds himself caught between desire and morality in 1950s expat Paris. While much has changed since Baldwin wrote it, many aspects of life, love, and heartbreak remain the same.

The Charioteer

by Mary Renault

This romance novel is primarily set in 1940 and 1941 during the immediate post-Dunkirk period of World War II at a military hospital in England during nightly bomb raids and blackouts. The story's protagonist, Laurie (Laurence) 'Spud' Odell, is a young soldier wounded at Dunkirk, who must decide if his affections lie with a younger conscientious objector working at his hospital or a naval officer whom he had 'worshiped' when they had both been pupils at an all-boys boarding school and with whom he has suddenly been reconnected.

The Prettiest Star

by Carter Sickels

Small-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he's chosen to return to die. At eighteen, Brian, like so many other promising young gay men, arrived in New York City without much more than a love for the freedom and release from his past that it promised. But within six short years, AIDS would claim his lover, his friends, and his future. With nothing left in New York but memories of death, Brian decides to write his mother a letter asking to come back to the place, and family, he was once so desperate to escape.

Boyfriend Material

by Alexis Hall

Luc O’Donnell is in need of a normal, perfect boyfriend to repair his reputation. As the son of estranged British 1980s rock stars, Luc is peripherally famous. He works for a nonprofit, and when donors start backing out because of him, “Operation Fake Respectable Boyfriend” is launched. Unfortunately, his friends decide to set him up with Oliver Blackwood, a barrister Luc has nothing in common with. Despite their date going poorly, Oliver agrees to a fake relationship since he needs a date for his parents’ anniversary party. The more time they spend fake dating, though, the more they realize that opposites attract and that fake can turn real.

Carved in Bone

by Michael Nava

November, 1984. Criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios, fresh out of rehab and picking up the pieces of his life, reluctantly accepts work as an insurance claims investigator and is immediately is assigned to investigate the apparently accidental death of Bill Ryan. Ryan, part of the great gay migration into San Francisco in the 1970s, has died in his flat of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty gas line, his young lover barely surviving. Rios’s investigation into Ryan’s death–which Rios becomes convinced was no accident–tracks Ryan’s life from his arrival in San Francisco as a terrified 18-year-old to his transformation into a successful businessman. What begins for Rios as the search for the truth about Bill Ryan’s death becomes the search for the meaning of Ryan’s life as the tsunami of AIDS bears down on the gay community.

The Picture of Dorian Gray 

by Oscar Wilde

If you read this classic about a man who doesn't age while his hidden portrait gets older and older and missed the gay subtext, it's time to give Wilde's story another read. Maybe one of the most subtly LGBT books on this list, you'll catch the references the second time around.

All My Mother’s Lovers 

by Ilana Masad

After Maggie's mother dies unexpectedly, she returns home to California to deal with the aftermath. But what she finds is a collection of sealed letters her homophobic mom wrote to her apparent lovers. When Maggie sets out to deliver them, she learns a lot about her parents' relationship, her late mom and her own misconceptions.

Milk Fed 

by Melissa Broder

24-year-old Rachel is a lapsed Jew and obsessive calorie counter who's encouraged by her therapist to take a 90-day break from her mother. Meeting Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman, changes Rachel's entire worldview.

The Price of Salt 

by Patricia Highsmith

The story of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose salvation arrives one day in the form of Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce. They fall in love and set out across the United States, pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover.

Love and resistance : out of the closet into the Stonewall era

photographs by Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies; edited by Jason Baumann

Selected from the New York Public Library archives, a powerful collection featuring the images of two pioneering civil-rights photojournalists captures the energy, humor and humanity of the groundbreaking LGBTQ equality protests that surrounded the Stonewall Riots.

Everybody : A book about freedom

by Olivia Laing

In her ambitious, brilliant sixth book, Olivia Laing charts an electrifying course through the long struggle for bodily freedom, using the life of the renegade psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich to explore gay rights and sexual liberation, feminism, and the civil rights movement.

Gay like me : a father writes to his son

by Richie Jackson

The award-winning executive producer of Nurse Jackie presents a timely love letter to his son describing his experiences as a gay man in America and the progress and setbacks of LGBTQ citizens throughout the past 50 years.

An indefinite sentence : a personal history of outlawed love and sex

by Siddharth Dube

A revelatory memoir about sex, oppression and the universal struggle for justice by the Executive Director of UNAIDS describes his personal quest for love and self-respect as a gay youth in mid-20th-century India and Harvard.

The Queens' English : the LGBTQIA+ dictionary of lingo and colloquial phrases

by Chloe O Davis

This comprehensive guide to modern gay slang, queer theory terms, and playful colloquialisms that define and celebrate LBGTQIA+ culture is both an education and a celebration of queer history, identity, and the limitless imagination of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Lady Romeo : the radical and revolutionary life of Charlotte Cushman, America's first celebrity

by Tana Wojczuk

This illuminating and enthralling biography of 19th-century queer actress Charlotte Cushman portrays her radical lifestyle that riveted New York City and made headlines across America.

Rachel Maddow : a biography

by Lisa Rogak

In a biography one of the most popular anchors in cable news, a New York Times bestselling author shares little know details of Rachel Maddow’s life, from her childhood to her groundbreaking MSNBC show.

Se elige? : 300 preguntas y respuestas sobre la homosexualidad

by Eric Marcus

El autor de esta obra entrega respuestas simples y directas a una gran cantidad de interrogantes sobre la homosexualidad, un tema polémico que pese a su antigua existencia no siempre ha estado presente en las conversaciones diarias por ser considerado tabú en algunas sociedades occidentales. Un libro que viene a suplir la necesidad de conocimiento sobre las relaciones íntimas entre parejas de igual sexo, el papel que debe cumplir la familia, y otras situaciones que orientan al lector sobre esta temática. Así, surgen una serie de preguntas sobre cómo saber si uno es gay o lesbiana; cómo actuar frente a un hijo que es homosexual; qué tipo de educación deben brindar padres homosexuales a sus hijos; cuál es la visión que adopta la Biblia como libro sagrado sobre este tema; entre otras.

Sirena Selena vestida de pena

by Mayra Santos-Febres

Sirena Selena es un joven gay que se prostituye para sobrevivir. Sin embargo, su historia cambia radicalmente cuando conoce en las calles de San Juan a la dueña del bar Danubio Azul: Martha Divine, una drag queen ya entrada en años, rubia oxigenada y siempre con uñas de color granate, que queda impresionada por la bella y dulce voz del muchacho. Martha lo toma bajo su cuidado para transformarlo en la más hermosa drag que nadie haya visto y juntas se van a probar suerte a República Dominicana, donde vivirán una serie de inesperados y angustiosos sucesos. Sirena Selena vestida de pena es el emotivo reflejo de una parte de la sociedad caribeña y una gran reflexión sobre los enigmas de la sexualidad. Escrita con un lenguaje travieso y conmovedor, esta novela evidencia la intrínseca relación entre el amor y el sufrimiento.

Yo

by Ricky Martin

El artista Ricky Martin, quien ha vendido más de 60 millones de álbumes en todo el mundo, habla por primera vez sobre su infancia, sus comienzos musicales en el grupo Menudo, su búsqueda de identidad durante el fenómeno de "Livin' La Vida Loca", la aceptación de su sexualidad, las relaciones en las que descubrió el amor y las decisiones que cambiaron su vida, como el convertirse en padre, y su dedicación por ayudar a los niños desprivilegiados en todo el mundo. "Yo" es un libro íntimo de memorias sobre la trayectoría espiritual de uno de los artistas más reconocidos de nuestra época.--Desde la descripción de la editorial.

Fresa y chocolate

by Senel Paz

Cuba, la amistad, la homosexualidad, la situación política... son los ingredientes de esta maravillosa historia de Senel Paz que Tomás Gutiérrez Alea convirtió en el único film cubano nominado al Oscar a la mejor película extranjera.

¿Gay y cristiano? : respuestas con amor y verdad a las preguntas acerca de la homosexualidad

by Michael L. Brown, PhD

Respuestas a las preguntas difíciles acerca de la homosexualidad y las iglesia con AMOR y VERDAD. Como deben responder los cristianos a quienes llevan un estilo de vida "gay" pero que afirman que aman profundamente al Señor? Como les respondemos cuando dicen que la ley mas importante es el amor y que este nos obliga a aceptarlos tal como son? Que hacemos con el argumento de que las leyes del Antiguo Testamento ya no son validas? "Gay y cristiano?" responde a estas y otras preguntas con una perspectiva y un conocimiento bíblicos, ofreciendo una guía útil para todos los cristianos que tienen amigos o miembros de la familia que son "gays" o luchan con su propia sexualidad. No hay duda de que la homosexualidad se ha convertido en un gran problema moral y espiritual para la iglesia en esta generación. Pero, que piensa Dios sobre este asunto? Que esta escrito en su Palabra? Que querría Jesús que hiciéramos? Con amor, misericordia y sin diluir la verdad de la Escritura, Michael Brown le guía a través de diversos debates, argumentos y puntos de vista para que llegue a una conclusión compasiva, franca y cimentada en la Palabra de Dios.

Conversaciones : relatos de padres y madres de hijas lesbianas e hijos gay

recopilación y redacción de Mariana Romo-Carmona Book

Veintitrés padres latinos hablan sobre sus relaciones con sus hijos gay y lesbianas, con franqueza, humor, y amor. Una madre puertorriqueña aprecia y apoya a su hijo, un respetado oficial de policía. Una madre argentina asiste al Orgullo Gay con dos hijas lesbianas. Una madre hondureña se une a sus hijas gemelas en eventos de jóvenes homosexuales; una es lesbiana y la otra es bisexual. La madre de un activista mexicano recuerda el amor de su familia por su hijo, quien falleció después de vivir con SIDA durante diez años. Conversaciones es un libro de suma importancia para todas las comunidades latinoamericanas y de habla hispana. Con relatos de doce hijos e hijas y epílogo de Jaime Manrique.

El espacio torcido : la narrativa mexicana de temática homosexual masculina (1977-1997)

by Juan Carlos Rocha Osornio

Este libro describe y analiza la forma en que los personajes homosexuales masculinos y/o gays (asumidos y no asumidos) interactúan en su devenir cotidiano dentro del marco de cuatro novelas y un libro de relatos entre el periodo que comprende 1977-1997, en México. El denominado por el autor espacio torcido es un espacio que , además de estar en pleno proceso de construcción (en tránsito) sirve para (re)afirmar la existencia de una relación profundamente ambigua entre los polos hetero y homosexual. A través del análisis de las obras, se revelan aspectos de los personajes que luchan por coexistir dentro de un ámbito en el que la identidad gay se antepone o entra constantemente en conflicto con los valores tradicionales de la sociedad heteronormativa patriarcal, tales como la represión (homo)sexual, los tradiciones papeles de género (activo vs pasivo), el rechazo a los homosexuales enfermos de SIDA, y el fracaso de las relaciones de pareja entre varones. Este espacio es, también, en sumo grado revelador del proceso de edificación en el que se posiciona la narrativa mexicana de temática homosexual masculina, y que al mismo tiempo augura una suerte de nuevos retos impuestos a los escritores deseosos de abordar el tema, para que sus obras logren superar las tramas cursis y poco críticas.

Ser Gay En El Siglo 21

by John A. K. Scott

Es increíble cómo es que las cosas han cambiado en las últimas décadas. Antes, no podías atreverte a expresar una orientación que fuera diferente de cualquier elección que hayas tomado en ese momento: heterosexual. Incluso era equivocado imaginar el concepto de ser atraído por una persona del mismo género, y sentías que tenías que guardar esos sentimientos dentro de ti. No había otra manera porque tus padres se alarmarían, tus amigos te evitarían y las instituciones serían muy incómodas contigo por hablar de tu sexualidad. Incluso tenían una política en la que podías ser homosexual, pero ¡pobre de ti si elegías hacerlo público!

Nuestro Baile

by Jeff Erno

Durante seis años, Rex Payton ha estado centrado en dos cosas: mantener a flote el bar de su difunto padre en un pequeño pueblo de Kentucky y en criar a su sobrino Ty. Tras la trágica pérdida de sus padres y su hermana, Rex no estaba interesado en el amor. Es respetado por sus vecinos, que le ven como el soltero de oro de Carlisle, pero ha aceptado que su vida no es propicia para tener una relación, sobre todo cuando aún no ha salido del armario. Josh Billings es un estudiante de veterinaria que está haciendo unas prácticas en el pueblo. La mayor pasión de Josh es ayudar a los animales. El amor es una idea que no entra en su cabeza… hasta la noche en la que conoce al guapo y taciturno Rex Payton. La suerte y un baile a deshora, conspiran para dar lugar a una íntima conexión que ninguno de los dos buscaba, una conexión que ninguno de los dos podrá olvidar después de que el baile conduzca a un beso. De repente, el amor no es algo tan insignificante pero surgen complicaciones. Para que la relación funcione, Josh tendrá que decidir si puede sobrellevar lo que supone salir con un padre soltero, Rex tiene que abrir su corazón y Ty tiene que aprender a compartir el afecto de su padre.

Cuatro Lunas/ 4 Moons

dirigida por Sergio Tovar Velarde

4 Moons/Cuatro Lunas cuenta cuatro historias sobre el amor y la autoaceptación. Un niño de once años lucha por mantener en secreto la atracción que siente hacia su primo. Dos ex-amigos de la infancia se reencuentran y comienzan una relación que se complica por el miedo que uno de ellos tiene de que los sorprendan. Una relación gay duradera está en peligro cuando aparece un tercer hombre. Un anciano de familia está obsesionado con un joven prostituto y trata de recaudar dinero para costear la experiencia.

Moonlight

Based on the play "In moonlight black boys look blue" by Tarell Alvin McCraney. A young black man struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

France, 1760. Marianne is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women orbit one another, intimacy and attraction grow as they share Héloïse's first moments of freedom. Héloïse's portrait soon becomes a collaborative act and testament to their love.

Blue is the warmest color: la vie d'Adèle

Freely inspired by the comic book Le bleu est une couleur chaude by Julie Maroh, published by Éditions Glénat. A young woman's experiences of first love and sexual awakening. . . . a high schooler who, much to her own surprise, plunges into a thrilling relationship with a female twentysomething art student.

Angels in America

Set in 1985. Revolves around two very different men with AIDS, one fictional, one fictionalized. Roy Cohn personifies all the hypocrisy, delusion and callousness of the official response to the plague. Nothing shakes Roy's lack of empathy: even on his death bed, he's fighting with his gay nurse and taunting the woman he helped put to death, Ethel Rosenberg. The other patient is Prior Walter, who is visited by an angel and deserted by his self-pitying lover, Louis. Louis moves on to a relationship with Joe Pitt, a Mormon lawyer whose closeted homosexuality drives his wife to delusions and brings his mother to New York.

Carol

Two women from very different backgrounds find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. As conventional norms of the time challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change. A young woman in her twenties, Therese is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol, an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage.

Chun guang zha xie : Happy Together

They can’t live with each other, they can’t live without each other, and neither of them can sustain what’s threatening to become toxic. So these two men decide to travel from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires to give their relationship one last shot in the arm, and soon realize that not even a change of scenery can save their curdling bond.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Based on the long-running New York smash hit, this film is a high-powered rock musical that tells the hilarious but emotional tale of a German glam-rock diva on a journey to find love and stardom in her new home, a trailer park in Kansas!

My Beautiful Laundrette

Set in the Pakistani community in south London, the film focuses on two youths--Johnny, a working-class white, and Omar, a Pakistani. Together they operate a laundrette, which Omar inherits from his uncle. While Johnny looks upon the laundrette as a life line on which to salvage his self-respect, Omar sees it as just the beginning step on the road to riches.

Milk

Based on the true story of Harvey Milk who became a San Francisco Gay Rights activist and city politician. On his third attempt, he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, the first openly-gay man to be elected to public office in the United States. The following year, both he and the city's mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by former city supervisor, Dan White, who blamed his former colleagues for denying White's attempt to rescind his resignation from the board.

The queen

More than 40 years before RuPaul's Drag Race, this ground-breaking documentary about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant introduced audiences to the world of competitive drag. The film takes viewers backstage to kiki with the contestants as they rehearse, throw shade, and transform into their drag personas for the big event. Organized by pioneering LGBTQ+ icon and activist Jack Doroshow, the competition boasted a star-studded panel of judges including Andy Warhol.

And then we danced

written & directed by Levan Akin

Writer-director Levan Akin's romantic drama unfolds in the ultraconservative area of Tbilisi, Georgia. It stars Levan Gelbakhiani, Bachi Valishvili and Ana Javakishvili. Merab has been training with Mary for a place in the prestigious National Georgian Ensemble for years when Irakli, another talented male dancer, arrives. The two men develop a passionate rivalry that places Merab's personal relationships and professional aspirations at risk.

Boy erased

written for the screen and directed by Joel Edgerton

The son of a Baptist preacher is forced to participate in a church-supported gay conversion program after being forcibly outed to his parents.

Guigo offline

directed by Rene Guerra

The son of divorced parents, twelve-year-old Guigo is preoccupied with his cell phone and young love. On a fishing trip with his best friend Tullius, his father Roberto and Roberto's new friend Paul, he's shocked to learn he has no internet access and no way to text his crush. Things get even more overwhelming when he learns that Paul is his father's new boyfriend.

Marilyn

a film by Martin Rodriguez Redondo

Marcos, a seventeen-year-old farm worker, discovers his sexuality in a hostile environment. Nicknamed Marilyn by other teenagers in town, he becomes the target both of human desire and discrimination. Marcos feels himself pushed into a corner more and more.

Kanarie

directed by Christiaan Olwagen

During the height of apartheid, a small-town boy serves his compulsory military training in the South African Defence Force Choir and Concert group known as the "Canaries."

Papi Chulo

written and directed by John Butler

Cast adrift in Los Angeles, Sean, a lonely TV weatherman, drives past a middle-aged Latino migrant worker standing outside a hardware store looking for work. He decides to hire this kind-looking man to be his friend. Sean is young, gay, and white. Ernesto, portly, straight, and married. Despite having nothing in common and the language barrier, they build a sort of friendship, until Sean becomes consumed with a deeper obsessive need.

The happy prince

written and directed by Rupert Everett

The untold story of the last days in the tragic times of Oscar Wilde, a person who observes his own failure with ironic distance and regards the difficulties that beset his life with detachment and humor.

The Red Rose girls : an uncommon story of art and love

by Alice A. Carter

This is the true story of three women artists - Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Violet Oakley - who captivated early-twentieth-century Philadelphia with their brilliant careers and uncommon lifestyle. Nicknamed by their mentor, the famous illustrator Howard Pyle, "The Red Rose Girls" took over the Red Rose Inn, a picturesque estate on the city's venerable Main Line, and set up an unconventional household. Joined by their friend Henrietta Cozens, the women forged an intense emotional bond and made a pact to live together forever. Using their initials they adopted an acronymic surname, calling themselves the "Cogs family" - C for Cozens, O for Oakley, G for Green, S for Smith.

Art & queer culture

by Catherine Lord & Richard Meyer

Updated and revised, Art & Queer Culture is a comprehensive and definitive survey of artworks that have constructed, contested, or otherwise responded to alternative forms of sexuality. Rather than focusing exclusively on artists who self-identify as gay or lesbian, Art & Queer Culture instead traces the shifting possibilities and constraints of sexual identity that have provided visual artists with a rich creative resource over the last 130 years.

Bloodflowers : Rotimi Fani-Kayode, photography, and the 1980s

by W. Ian Bourland

Examines the photography of Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989), whose art is a touchstone for cultural debates surrounding questions of gender and queerness, race and diaspora, aesthetics and politics, and the enduring legacy of slavery and colonialism. Born in Nigeria, Fani-Kayode moved between artistic and cultural worlds in Washington, DC, New York, and London, where he produced the bulk of his provocative and often surrealist and homoerotic photographs of black men. The author situates Fani-Kayode's work in a time of global transition and traces how it exemplified and responded to profound social, cultural, and political change.

Kiss my genders

curatored by Vincent Honoré and Tarini Malik

Kiss my genders celebrates the work of more than 20 international artists whose practices explore and engage with gender fluidity, as well as non-binary, trans and intersex identities. Published alongside an exhibition, the book features works from the late 1960s and early 1970s through to the present, and focuses on artists who draw on their own experiences to create content and forms that challenge accepted or stable definitions of gender.

Jeffrey Gibson : like a hammer

by edited by John P. Lukavic

A citizen of the Mississippi Choctaw Nation and part Cherokee, Jeffrey Gibson spent time in Germany, England, and Korea in his youth. This mix of cultures informs much of his work, which combines elements from historical and contemporary Native arts and traditions, such as powwow regalia and the use of animal skins, with those from the artistic traditions of Modernism, Geometric Abstraction, and Minimalism. As a gay Native artist, Gibson explores in his work issues of oppression and civil rights in America, as well as universal ideas of love, community, strength, vulnerability, and survival.

Queer threads : crafting identity and community

by John Chaich, Todd Oldham

Loaded with gender connotations and power hierarchies, fiber-based handicrafts such as crochet, embroidery, knitting, macrame, quilting, and sewing provide a fitting platform for examining tastes, roles, and relationships socialized within and around gay and lesbian culture, as well as our reactions to the traditional home and cultures in which we were raised.

Robert Mapplethorpe : the archive

by Frances Terpak & Michelle Brunnick

Providing an overview of the most extensive collection of primary material existing on Robert Mapplethorpe's entire practice, including the work he produced before turning to photography. Focused on examples of etchings, drawings, collages, paintings, sculpture, commercial work, personal collections, as well as intimate dialogues among friends, colleagues, and business associates, in addition, the book provides insight into Mapplethorpe's identity as a gay man and the ways his art pushed against the limits of censorship and conformity.

Queered : what's to be done with xcentric art = Tarōrinakvats ē : inch anel xtsʻentrik arvesti het

designed and edited by Lusine Talalyan, Arpi Adamyan, Shushan Avagyan

Since the word da-RO-ri-NAG-vadz had no place, no equal, nor a companion in my Armenian imaginary, I recalled the countless times I have bitched to friends about the limitations of the Armenian language, say, in naming certain things or sentiments, including expressions while making love. […] How does the tension between the universal and particular reconcile in the language with which one makes love?!

Hold my hand

by Michael Barakiva

With their six-month anniversary coming up, Alek and Ethan want to do something special to celebrate. Like, really special. Like, the most special thing two people in love can do with one another. But Alek’s not sure he’s ready for that. And then he learns something about Ethan that may not just change their relationship, but end it.

One man guy

by Michael Barakiva

Alek Khederian was looking forward to a relaxing summer. But when his parents announce that he’ll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades, Alek is sure this experience will be just as hellish as his freshman year of high school. But he never could’ve predicted that he’d meet someone like Ethan.

Me as her again: true stories of an Armenian daughter

by Nancy Agabian

In this memoir, Nancy Agabian tells stories of growing pains, family tensions, and buried pasts. In a narrative that braids together different times and places and shifts between comic and dramatic registers, Agabian tells us how, as a child, she learns to juggle roles in response to competing pressures to fit in as an American while maintaining her Armenian heritage. At home, she struggles with her grandmother’s old ideologies, arguments between her parents, and heated discussions about race and sexuality. In her twenties, Agabian moves to Hollywood and becomes a performance artist and begins to discover herself sexually, dating both men and women. After hiding her autobiographical shows from her relatives, she finally decides to confront her family history and takes a trip to Turkey with her artist aunt, during which she finds she must reckon with painful family histories involving displacement and genocide.

Kikosi veradardzě : ipatmvatskʻner 

by Armen Ōhanyan

The short story collection is the writer's first book, and it includes the very first samples of the interactive Armenian prose, as the writer himself characterizes his work. The short stories are structured as games with readers, who should act as co-authors of the short stories. The author is also open to cooperation with other writers (Flying Bicycle; co-author Aram Pachyan, The Last Breakfast; co-author Lilit Karapetyan). Game is an indivisible part of Armen Ohanyan's works (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Mario Superstar, Hide-and-seek, Matryoshka). That is his unique way to involve readers and a solution to the problem of isolation in the modern Armenian literary process. As a follower of post modernism, he reconsiders the past, unfastening some space in Armenian prose both for old and new heroes.

Forgotten bread : first-generation Armenian American writers

edited by David Kherdian

Forging identity from loss first-generation Armenian American Writing This is an outstanding collection of literature from seventeen first-generation Armenian American authors, each introduced here by a member of the second generation. For the many readers who are unfamiliar with all but the most famous of these authors William Saroyan and Michael J. Arlen, for example powerful discoveries await: the writing in this volume is intense, magical, and filled with love of life. It is also characterized by the unspeakable sadness that accompanied the loss of so many Armenians in the genocide of 1915. Many of those who survived the genocide found their way to America, and writing became a salvation for talented young Armenian Americans in their struggle for dignity, identity, and meaning in their adopted country. Suffused with a sense of history, colored by personal experience, and imbued with the hopefulness of a fresh start, these stories convey what history books cannot. What coalesces, instead, is a deeply American story of the forces that propel individuals forward into a new world.

Supʻěr herosnerě kě meṛnin amran 

by Kʻristian Batikean

A story that animates the reality of childhood, where the comic book characters are also the living participants who create an equal reality with people. The heroes of Christian Batikian’s stories are teenagers, whose first step into “adult reality” begins with a clash of their ideals with superheroes. The book interestingly shows the influence of modern Western culture on the formation of adolescents, as well as the problems of childhood and identity of a child raised in the colony.

Lion woman's legacy : an Armenian-American memoir 

by Arlene Voski Avakian

Confused, I asked what she meant and realized from her response that she had misinterpreted what I’d said about wanting to reclaim some of Armenian culture for a desire to become part of an Armenian community. I told her that the two things had been very separate for me. I didn’t believe that I ever would live within an Armenian community. She asked why with such sincerity that I responded honestly. I said I could not live my life as an adult woman within the confines of an Armenian community where there was no room for me to be who I am. To my surprise, she said she knew what I meant, but she did not elaborate. No one else spoke.