Haigazian and Hairenik Press Launch Armenian Memory Book Series
Haigazian University Press and Hairenik Press launch Armenian memory book series
Haigazian University Press and Hairenik Press have launched the Armenian Memory Book Series with the publication of "My Native Village: Okhou" by Parounag Topalian, a 1943 Armenian-language account now available in English translation. The book reconstructs life in an Ottoman Armenian village through the recollections of a Genocide survivor.
Armenian memory books, or houshamadyans, are a distinctive literary genre created by Genocide survivors and descendants that preserve history, genealogy, folklore, and community records of destroyed settlements. The series will republish significant works, translate previously unavailable texts, and make them accessible to English-language readers with critical commentary and scholarly context.
The initiative grew from a proposal by George Aghjayan to translate memory books of his ancestral hometown of Palu, expanding into a broader effort spanning Armenian towns and villages across the former Ottoman Empire.
