Join us on Tuesday, March 19 at 7pm PT when Armen Davoudian joins us to celebrate the launch of his debut collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, with Randall Mann at 9th Ave!
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/cNNS4mXBiBM
Praise for The Palace of Forty Pillars
"In this formally radical debut, Armen Davoudian shows how rhyme enacts longing for a homeland left behind; how meter sings to a lost beloved; and how a combination of the two can map a self--or idea of the self--relinquished so that a new life, and all the happiness it deserves, can take shape." - Paul Tran, author of All the Flowers Kneeling
"These are songs of adolescence and love, of migration and history, brilliant and deft and heartfelt. Under the tutelary gaze of ancestral poets, Davoudian honors his queer amalgam of sources and makes of English sonnets and Persian ghazals something musical, memorable, and new. A magisterial book--reading it, I felt enchanted and transformed." - Richie Hofmann, author of A Hundred Lovers
"Armen Davoudian transforms his Iranian childhood with Proustian sensuality. His images embody a psychological web of forces that shape the self as it accrues the complexities of experience. His cosmopolitan voice spans time and space and literary traditions. The echo chamber of his language will stay with you. " - Peter Balakian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ozone Journal
About The Palace of Forty Pillars
Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian's debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America. It is a story darkened by the long shadow of global tragedies--the Armenian genocide, war in the Middle East, the specter of homophobia. With masterful attention to rhyme and meter, these poems also carefully witness the most intimate encounters: the awkward distance between mother and son getting ready in the morning, the delicate balance of power between lovers, a tense exchange with the morality police in Iran.
In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars--but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudian's magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in art's reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.
About Armen Davoudian
Armen Davoudian is the author of The Palace of Forty Pillars, forthcoming from Tin House Books in March 2024. His poems and translations from Persian appear in Poetry magazine, the Hopkins Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. Armen grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University.
About Randall Mann
Randall Mann is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Deal: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2023). He lives in San Francisco.
show less
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/cNNS4mXBiBM
Praise for The Palace of Forty Pillars
"In this formally radical debut, Armen Davoudian shows how rhyme enacts longing for a homeland left behind; how meter sings to a lost beloved; and how a combination of the two can map a self--or idea of the self--relinquished so that a new life, and all the happiness it deserves, can take shape." - Paul Tran, author of All the Flowers Kneeling
"These are songs of adolescence and love, of migration and history, brilliant and deft and heartfelt. Under the tutelary gaze of ancestral poets, Davoudian honors his queer amalgam of sources and makes of English sonnets and Persian ghazals something musical, memorable, and new. A magisterial book--reading it, I felt enchanted and transformed." - Richie Hofmann, author of A Hundred Lovers
"Armen Davoudian transforms his Iranian childhood with Proustian sensuality. His images embody a psychological web of forces that shape the self as it accrues the complexities of experience. His cosmopolitan voice spans time and space and literary traditions. The echo chamber of his language will stay with you. " - Peter Balakian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ozone Journal
About The Palace of Forty Pillars
Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian's debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America. It is a story darkened by the long shadow of global tragedies--the Armenian genocide, war in the Middle East, the specter of homophobia. With masterful attention to rhyme and meter, these poems also carefully witness the most intimate encounters: the awkward distance between mother and son getting ready in the morning, the delicate balance of power between lovers, a tense exchange with the morality police in Iran.
In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars--but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudian's magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in art's reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.
About Armen Davoudian
Armen Davoudian is the author of The Palace of Forty Pillars, forthcoming from Tin House Books in March 2024. His poems and translations from Persian appear in Poetry magazine, the Hopkins Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. Armen grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University.
About Randall Mann
Randall Mann is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Deal: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2023). He lives in San Francisco.
Join us on Tuesday, March 19 at 7pm PT when Armen Davoudian joins us to celebrate the launch of his debut collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, with Randall Mann at 9th Ave!
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/cNNS4mXBiBM
Praise for The Palace of Forty Pillars
"In this formally radical debut, Armen Davoudian shows how rhyme enacts longing for a homeland left behind; how meter sings to a lost beloved; and how a combination of the two can map a self--or idea of the self--relinquished so that a new life, and all the happiness it deserves, can take shape." - Paul Tran, author of All the Flowers Kneeling
"These are songs of adolescence and love, of migration and history, brilliant and deft and heartfelt. Under the tutelary gaze of ancestral poets, Davoudian honors his queer amalgam of sources and makes of English sonnets and Persian ghazals something musical, memorable, and new. A magisterial book--reading it, I felt enchanted and transformed." - Richie Hofmann, author of A Hundred Lovers
"Armen Davoudian transforms his Iranian childhood with Proustian sensuality. His images embody a psychological web of forces that shape the self as it accrues the complexities of experience. His cosmopolitan voice spans time and space and literary traditions. The echo chamber of his language will stay with you. " - Peter Balakian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ozone Journal
About The Palace of Forty Pillars
Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian's debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America. It is a story darkened by the long shadow of global tragedies--the Armenian genocide, war in the Middle East, the specter of homophobia. With masterful attention to rhyme and meter, these poems also carefully witness the most intimate encounters: the awkward distance between mother and son getting ready in the morning, the delicate balance of power between lovers, a tense exchange with the morality police in Iran.
In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars--but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudian's magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in art's reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.
About Armen Davoudian
Armen Davoudian is the author of The Palace of Forty Pillars, forthcoming from Tin House Books in March 2024. His poems and translations from Persian appear in Poetry magazine, the Hopkins Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. Armen grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University.
About Randall Mann
Randall Mann is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Deal: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2023). He lives in San Francisco.
read more
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/cNNS4mXBiBM
Praise for The Palace of Forty Pillars
"In this formally radical debut, Armen Davoudian shows how rhyme enacts longing for a homeland left behind; how meter sings to a lost beloved; and how a combination of the two can map a self--or idea of the self--relinquished so that a new life, and all the happiness it deserves, can take shape." - Paul Tran, author of All the Flowers Kneeling
"These are songs of adolescence and love, of migration and history, brilliant and deft and heartfelt. Under the tutelary gaze of ancestral poets, Davoudian honors his queer amalgam of sources and makes of English sonnets and Persian ghazals something musical, memorable, and new. A magisterial book--reading it, I felt enchanted and transformed." - Richie Hofmann, author of A Hundred Lovers
"Armen Davoudian transforms his Iranian childhood with Proustian sensuality. His images embody a psychological web of forces that shape the self as it accrues the complexities of experience. His cosmopolitan voice spans time and space and literary traditions. The echo chamber of his language will stay with you. " - Peter Balakian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ozone Journal
About The Palace of Forty Pillars
Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian's debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America. It is a story darkened by the long shadow of global tragedies--the Armenian genocide, war in the Middle East, the specter of homophobia. With masterful attention to rhyme and meter, these poems also carefully witness the most intimate encounters: the awkward distance between mother and son getting ready in the morning, the delicate balance of power between lovers, a tense exchange with the morality police in Iran.
In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars--but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudian's magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in art's reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.
About Armen Davoudian
Armen Davoudian is the author of The Palace of Forty Pillars, forthcoming from Tin House Books in March 2024. His poems and translations from Persian appear in Poetry magazine, the Hopkins Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. Armen grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University.
About Randall Mann
Randall Mann is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Deal: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2023). He lives in San Francisco.
show less
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