WHAT BOOKS ARE PUBLISHED BY STATE SUPPORT?

Azg/arm
01 Dec 04

Numerous books are published in Armenia daily. Part of them is printed
by state support. Gurgen Poghosian, deputy head of Publishing agency,
described the mechanism of printing a book by state support in the
following way: “In the beginning an announcement is given in the
newspapers and the authors bring the originals of their pieces to the
agency. The agency submits the list of the books to the Literature
Committee at RA Culture Ministry for consideration”.

“The abovementioned committee selects the books that are to be
published by the state support, taking into account the value and the
volume of the piece, the price of the books and other criteria,”
Mr. Poghosian emphasized. The list of the selected books is approved
by the government’s special decree. Mr. Poghosian gave general
information on the published books. According to these data, in 2003
150 books with the circulation of 122.600 copies were published by
state support. There were 63 books for children (66500 copies, 40
million AMD), 3 books on encyclopedic literature (2500 copies, 28
million AMD), 15 books on scientific-popular literature (10500 copies,
22,6 million AMD). In fact, 105,6 million AMD were spent on book
publishing in 2003.

In 2004 the following books were published. 165 books with the
circulation of 72,950 copies in total within the framework of 97,5
million AMD and additional 11 million AMD for anniversary
literature. There were 17 books for children (28.500 copies, 30
million AMD), 9 encyclopedic books (10.900 copies, 28 million AMD), 27
books on scientific popular literature (11.000 copies, 15 million
AMD), 58 books on other literature (22.500 copies, 24,5 million
AMD). In fact, the number of the books published this year increased
by 15% compared with 2003.

Mr. Poghosian gave the list of the books published this year. They
published the following books for children: Ghazaros Aghayan’s
“Aregakan”, short stories by Vazgen Sargsian, Narek Hovsepian’s “The
Brave Hunters”, Hovhannes Tumanian’ s “The Dog and the Cat.” The
agency released the following encyclopedic books: “The History of
Armenian Art,” by Hravard Hakobian, the catalogue ofRA National
Picture Gallery “The Sculpture at RA National Picture Gallery”. Among
the scientific-popular literature the book by Stepan Poghosian “The
History of the Armenian Cause and Armenian Genocide”, (third volume),
Azat Yeghiazarian’s “Essays of the XX Century Armenian Literature,” as
well as Silva Kapoutikian’s selected works, Perch Zeitountsiants’
“Nightmares” novel, Zory Balayan’s “Selection of Articles,” “Poems,
Prose, Articles, Speeches, Letters,” by Mark Shagal.

By Gohar Gevorgian