Peter Balakian’s The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s
Response Wins 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize

Harper Collins Publishers
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New York, NY 10022-5299
Contact: Tim Brazier
Tel. 212-207-7520
Fax. 212-207-7901
Email: tim.brazier@harpercollins.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK: Peter Balakian’s “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide
and America’s Response” has been awarded the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize
for the best scholarly book in the preceding two years on the subject of
genocide, mass killings, gross human rights violations, and the
prevention of such crimes. The award is given by the Institute for the
Study of Genocide at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY Graduate
Center in New York City. The prize comes with a cash award and
commemorates Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who pioneered the
international legal concept of genocide. Helen Fein, Chair of the prize
committee called The Burning Tigris `a book of enduring scholarly value
and of important contemporary meaning.’ Previous winners include
Samantha Power’s “A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide”
(winner of the Pulitzer Prize), and Alison Des Forges “Leave None To
Tell The Story: Genocide In Rwanda.”

The Burning Tigris was a New York Times bestseller and a national
bestseller, and a New York Times Notable Book of 2003. Balakian is the
author of seven other books, including Black Dog of Fate, which won
the 1998 PEN/Albrand Prize for memoir, and June-tree: New and Selected
Poems. He is the recipient of honors and awards including a Guggenheim
fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Anahit
Literary Prize, and an Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has appeared
widely on national television and radio. Translations of his work have
been published throughout Europe. He is the Donald M. and Constance H.
Rebar Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at Colgate
University, where he was the first director of Colgate’s Center For
Ethics and World Societies.

The award ceremony and talk by the author will be held on Friday,
November 11 at 2:15 pm in 1311 North Hall (445 W. 59th St) at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice. Contact Helen Fein, Director, the Institute
for the Study of Genocide, helenfein@comcast.net.

For review copies of THE BURNING TIGRIS or to set up interviews with
Peter Balakian please contact: Tim Brazier, tim.brazier@harpercollins.com

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress