Tuesday, April 26, 2016

2016 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: “Ozone Journal” by Peter Balakian


Peter Balakian, a professor of English and creative writing at Colgate University, is known for his writing and works about the Armenian genocide, which occurred between 1915 and 1918 during and right after World War I in what is now mostly Turkey. The government of the then-Ottoman Empire put to death between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. Other indigenous and Christian peoples were targeted as well, but the Armenians bore the brunt.

And it was during this genocide that systematic murder, death marches, concentration camps, rape, and confiscation of property became official government policy, something the Nazi government in Germany perfected and the Serbian army in Bosnia emulated. In fact, the word “genocide” was coined in 1943 specifically to describe what happened to the Armenian people. The Turkish government today continues to deny that this genocide actually happened.


To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

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