Targeted News Service
October 22, 2008 Wednesday 7:32 AM EST

EMERITUS PROF CELEBRATES SAROYAN CENTENNIAL ON WORLD SCALE

FRESNO, Calif.

California State University Fresno issued the following press release:

One of the William Saroyan centennial’s busiest celebrants is
Dr. Dickran Kouymjian, the Haig & Isabel Berberian Professor of
Armenian Studies, Emeritus, at California State University, Fresno,
who has traveled extensively marking the renowned author’s life and
works.

Saroyan was born 100 years ago in Fresno and died there in 1981. In a
career that included writing short stories, books, plays, even song
lyrics, Saroyan won an Academy Award and a Pulitzer Prize (which he
refused). He was also an artist and filmmaker.

Often his stories and characters grew out of his early years in
Fresno’s Armenian community, but they also were shaped by visits and
living in Europe, San Francisco, Hollywood and New York.

In sharing his expertise on the author, Kouymjian, whose home is in
Paris, has experienced something of Saroyan’s peripatetic life. And
his travels won’t end until spring. His "Year of Saroyan" began in
April, when he participated in and helped Fresno State professor
Barlow Der Mugrdechian organize an international symposium, "William
Saroyan at 100," at Fresno State.

In July, Kouymjian traveled to Yerevan, Armenia, for the Golden
Apricot Armenian International Film Festival to screen Saroyan’s film,
"The Good Job," subtitled in Armenian, and the Oscar-winning "The
Human Comedy." He also presented a workshop on Saroyan and cinema.

In September, Kouymjian discussed Saroyan’s literary work during
Armenian Culture Days at the Vigd?s Finnboggad?ttir Institute of
Foreign Languages at the University of Iceland in Reykjav?k. He
returned to Paris to present a paper, "Saroyan as Painter," at a
conference of the Association Internationale des Etudes Arméniennes at
the Sorbonne.

Oct. 8-10, Kouymjian lectured and also chaired two roundtable
discussions at an international Saroyan conference he helped organize
in Yerevan, Armenia. Four of the five participants in the Saroyan
symposium at Fresno State joined him in Yerevan.

Attendance by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the newly appointed
American ambassador, Mary Jovanovich, and Hasmik Pogosyan, Armenia’s
minister of Culture, indicate Saroyan’s stature in his ancestral land.

In Yerevan, Kouymjian also instructed young theater directors on how
to direct and stage Saroyan’s later plays. Fresno State director Ed
EmmanuEl staged one such a work, "Slaughter of the Innocents," at the
same time Kouymjian was lecturing in Armenia.

Another Kouymjian project is "Saroyan in Paris," a tribute to be held
on Dec. 1 at the Musée de la Vie romantique. The museum is in the 9th
Arrondisement (called Opéra district) near the apartment where Saroyan
spent part of nearly each year from 1960 until just before his death.

Scheduled are a dramatic reading by Reine Bart?ve of Saroyan’s, "The
Armenian Mouse," a piano concert of his music by Vahan Mardirossian,
who played in the Philip Lorenz Keyboard Concerts series at Fresno
State in 2005, and a screening of the Saroyan film, "The Good Job."
Kouymjian will present an illustrated talk about Saroyan’s time in
Paris.

Also on Kouymjian’s Saroyan schedule is a photographic exhibit in
Istanbul, Turkey, late this year, a March tribute in Amsterdam and
writing an introduction to the publication of Saroyan’s early novel,
"Follow," by the Press at California State University, Fresno and The
Fresno Bee

Kouymjian retired last year from director of the Armenian Studies
Program at Fresno State, which he established in 1977. The campus also
is home to the Center for Armenian Studies, which offers an
opportunity for students and faculty to interact.

For more information, call 559.278.2669.