Colgate professor Peter Balakian, whose book The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response was a New York Times bestseller, is the first guest for a new podcast series produced on campus.
The series – Colgate Conversations: Writers and their craft – features authors talking about their unique writing styles and their latest works. Faculty members, alumni, and visiting authors are among those to be interviewed by Matt Leone, organizer of the annual Colgate Writer’s Conference.
The podcast series is a new way to share a passion for writing that is such an important part of the Colgate tradition.
During the podcast interview (mp3), Balakian answers questions about his life as a poet who matters both as an artist, and steadily and increasingly powerfully, as a voice in the political and cultural life of the United States and of Armenia.
Last year, Balakian was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal, one of Armenia’s highest civilian honors that is presented to individuals for their prominent contributions in the fields of culture, arts, literature, education, and humanities.
Balakian is the author of eight books: most recently June-tree: New and Selected Poems, 1974-2000. His memoir, Black Dog of Fate won the 1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for the Art of the Memoir, and was a best book of the year for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Publisher’s Weekly.
Balakian is the Constance H. and Donald M. Rebar Professor in the Humanities and professor of English at Colgate, and he heads the university’s creative writing program.
The university’s original podcast series, Colgate Conversations, features faculty, alumni, and administrators talking about research projects, higher education issues, and careers. Go here to see the most recent episode of that series.