COLUMBIA ARMENIAN CENTER ANAHID LITERARY AWARD COMMITTEE
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Michael Haratunian <[email protected]>
May 17, 2004
COLUMBIA ARMENIAN CENTER AWARDS 2003 ANAHID LITERARY PRIZE
New York City, NY — The Armenian Center at Columbia University is
pleased to announce that Patricia Sarrafian Ward has been chosen as
the recipient of the 2003 Anahid Literary Award.
Patricia Sarrafian Ward’s debut novel, The Bullet Collection,
was published in May of 2003 by Graywolf Press to great critical
acclaim. Booklist hailed the work as, “A startlingly insightful tale
of female coming-of-age in a time of war.”
In lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Bullet Collection describes the
embattled landscape of Beirut through the eyes of a young girl,
and shows the devastating effects of war on both the city and the
child. Excerpts from the novel, which in an earlier version was the
recipient of a Hopwood Award at the University of Michigan in 1995,
appeared in Jusoor: Post Gibran Anthology of New Arab American Writing
and in ARARAT Literary Magazine.
Patricia Sarrafian Ward was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1969 and
moved to the U.S. in 1987. She now lives in New Jersey.
The Anahid Literary Award was created by an anonymous patron to
recognize the achievements of American writers of Armenian descent to
encourage the development of their careers and to foster publication
of their work. A stipend of $5,000 is given to each recipient. The
awards committee consists of Peter Balakian, Marjorie Housepian Dobkin,
Nancy Kricorian and Peter Sourian.