PRESS RELEASE
ARMENIAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION
Ara Ghazarians, Curator
441 Mystic Street
Arlington, MA 02474-1108
Tel. (781)-646-3090
Arlington, MA – If every writer’s dream is to see his/her manuscript
receives positive remarks from a publisher, Margaret A. Ahnert, the author
of The Known at the Door: A Journey Through the Darkness of the Armenian
Genocide, could not ask for more. As a first time writer, her work received
praise even before it hit the bookstores. A memoir of her 98 year-old
mother, like many others before it, chronicling the horrors of the Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, it has even moved some Turkish nationals, who
attempted to disrupt her book reading at the Barnes and Nobles bookstore in
Manhattan, New York last week. The Armenian Cultural Foundation, in
collaboration with the Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA), is
inviting the public to attend an afternoon of literary journey on Sunday,
May 20th at 3:00 p.m. to meet Mrs. Ahnert, who will share her experience in
writing this fascinating memoir. The event is open to public, free of
charge with limited seating.
Margaret Ajemian Ahnert, who was born in New York City, received an MFA
from Goucher College and a BA from Goddard College, and is a graduate of the
Barnes Foundation. She has pursued a variety of careers including producing
television documentaries, lecturing as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and teaching art appreciation
through the "Art Goes to School" program in elementary schools. She holds a
100-ton master captain’s license and is an avid hunter and fisherwoman.
Married and the mother of two grown children and two grandchildren, she
lives in New York City and Ft. Lauderdale.
The Knock at the Door was released on April 24, at symbolic date when
Armenians worldwide commemorate the loss of over two thirds of their people
and their ancestral homeland of over three millennia. It is also fitting
that this work is dedicated to the one of the thousands of Armenian mothers
who shielded their children from the horrific memories of the Genocide. The
public is invited to meet Mrs. Margaret A. Ahnert on May 20 at 3:00 p.m. and
journey with a resilient young Armenian girl, Ester, who persevered so that
her people and children would survive. For more information, please contact
the Armenian Cultural Foundation during office hours (9:00 a.m. to 2:00
p.m.) or check you local new outlets.