The Columbia University Armenian Center will host the Anahid Literary Prize award ceremony on March 30 at Faculty House in New York. The event features readings by recipients Lory Bedikian and Aaron Poochigian, following opening remarks by Peter Balakian. Registration is required for attendance.
The ceremony is set for Monday, March 30, at 4:15 p.m., at Faculty House, located at 64 Morningside Drive, New York, NY, with entrance on 116th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. Interested attendees must register via the provided online form.
The Anahid Literary Prize recognizes writers of Armenian descent who write in English and are in the early or middle stages of their careers. Established by an anonymous donor and administered by the Columbia University Armenian Center since 1989, the prize includes a $5,000 cash award. This year's honorees are Lory Bedikian for 2024 and Aaron Poochigian for 2025. The prize committee consists of Peter Balakian, Aris Janigian, Micheline Marcom, and Patricia Sarafian Ward.
Previous recipients encompass a range of genres, including poetry, fiction, playwriting, and screenwriting: Laura Kalpakian, Leslie Ayvasian, Peter Balakian, Eric Bogosian, Diana Der Hovanessian, Micheline Marcom, Aris Janigian, Atom Egoyan, Arthur Nersesian, Patricia Sarafian Ward, and Susan Barba.
Lory Bedikian has authored The Book of Lamenting, which received the Philip Levine Prize in Poetry, and Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body, awarded the 2023 Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and published by the University of Nebraska Press. Her poems appear in publications such as Gulf Coast, Tin House, The Los Angeles Review, Northwest Review, and Massachusetts Review. She earned a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MFA from the University of Oregon, and she conducts poetry workshops in Los Angeles, at Poets House of New York, and the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center.
Aaron Poochigian's poetry collections include Manhattanite, The Cosmic Purr, and American Divine, the latter winning the Richard Wilbur Award. His work has been featured in Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, and POETRY. His latest book, Four Walks in Central: A Poetic Guide to the Park, came out in September 2025. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. His translations from Greek and Latin, including Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments by Sappho, have been published by Penguin Classics and W.W. Norton.
The program will include readings by the recipients, a conversation, and a reception.
