Published in 2024, The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian is his debut poetry collection. In it he shares his story, of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, as an Armenian in Iran, and as an immigrant in America.
Armen Davoudian has an MFA from Johns Hopkins University and is currently a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University. His poems and translations from Persian appear in Poetry magazine, the Hopkins Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. His chapbook, Swan Song, won the Frost Place Competition. Armen grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and lives in California.
The Palace of Forty Pillars 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.
From the book description
Literary Lights 2024: Featuring The Palace of Forty Pillars
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ISBN: 978-1-95903-036-2. Published by Tin House Books.
