Fresno State News, CA
April 27 2005
Lecture Series to Feature Acclaimed Authors, Illustrator on May 2
The award-winning husband and wife team of author David Kherdian and
author/illustrator Nonny Hogrogian will discuss and read from their
new books at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 2, at California State
University, Fresno.
The lecture is part of the Armenian Studies Program Spring 2005
Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the Armenian Students
Organization. It will be held in the Industrial Technology Building,
room 101 (corner of Barstow Avenue and Campus Drive).
David Kherdian, a Newberry Award winner, and Nonny Hogrogian, a
two-time Caldecott Medal winner have written, edited or illustrated a
combined total of more than 100 books.
Their work has encompassed the Armenian Genocide, life in America as
first-generation Armenians, children’s books, memoirs in verse and
prose, folklore and the mystical teachings of George Gurdjieff.
David Kherdian will read from one of his latest books, `The Song of
the Stork,’ a spirited translation of an important collection of
poems first compiled and published by the Mekhitarist priest and
scholar Levond Alishan in Venice in 1850. Kherdian writes of these
songs/poems that “their humility and troubled faith draws a response
from that place in us that is reserved for the essential and true
from our own unspoiled reservoir of spirit, that understands what has
been lost and can yet be regained.” The book features illustrations
by his wife.
He also will read from some earlier books of poetry and memoirs,
concluding with readings from his new book, `Letters to My
Father,’ which is a meditation on the elusive bond between fathers
and sons.
Kherdian won the Newberry Award for `The Road From Home: The Story
of An Armenian Girl,’ which detailed his mother’s experiences in
surviving the Armenian Genocide. Read by students and adults alike,
it has contributed greatly to increasing awareness of the Genocide.
He has been widely recognized as one of the most important and
distinctive voices in
-more-
Armenian-American poetry for nearly four decades. The title poem to
his collection `On the Death of My Father’ was praised by William
Saroyan as “one of the best lyric poems in American poetry.”
Hogrogian has twice won children’s literature’s highest honor, the
Caldecott Medal, for her books `Always Room for One More’ and
`One Fine Day.’
Her newest book, `Finding My Name,’ is a memoir of her first 13
years growing up in the Bronx in New York. It explores both her
efforts to find herself as a budding artist and the joys and
difficulties of growing up as an Armenian-American torn between two
cultures.
Her illustrations to Virginia Tashjian’s Armenian folktale
collections `Once There Was and Was Not’ and `Three Apples Fell
from Heaven’ and her husband’s retelling of the Armenian tale
`The Golden Bracelet’ are beloved by several generations of
Armenian children.
Following the authors’ talk and question-and-answer period, they will
be available to sign copies of their new titles and selected older
titles. Copies of Kherdian’s books will be available for purchase.
Relaxed parking will be available in Lots Q, K, and L after 7 p.m.
the night of the lecture. For more information on the presentation
please contact the Armenian Studies Program at 278-2669.