My photo gallery (Under construction)

Please visit my gallery featuring black & white photos, color photos, and drawings. I've posted a few black & white photos that have been published in magazines and now can be viewed at:

http://galleryminassian.blogspot.com/




Here are a few samples, photos I took on a visit to Chun Cheon, South Korea in 2005.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 and died in 1886 and lived most of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts. Along with Walt Whitman, she is considered one of the most original and influential American poets of the 19th Century. Only seven of her poems were published during her lifetime, but her sister found hundreds of poems among her possessions after her death.

She is buried in Amherst. My daughter Liana, a film major at the University of Miami, visited the gravesite in March 2007 and took this photograph.

Photo by Liana Minassian

For information about the Emily Dickinson Museum and House in Amherst, MA:

https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Bob Marley Museum - Kingston, Jamaica

In the winter of 2000, I was teaching a course in American Literature for Nova Southeastern University in Kingston, Jamaica. While I was in Kingston, I visited the Bob Marley Museum which houses many of the albums, stage costumes, and instruments from Bob Marley's career. The Queen of Sheba restaurant is also on the grounds of the Museum. Although Kingston is not on the usual tourist itinerary, it is worth a visit.

Check out the museum's website at:

http://www.bobmarley-foundation.com/museum.html

For an excellent biography of Bob Marley, read Timothy White's book: Catch A Fire

View a video of Bob Marley performing Concrete Jungle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSg1AxVoG1I

The O. Henry House & Museum, Austin, TX

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter whose short stories are famous for their ironic endings. He was born in 1862 on a plantation in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1882, he moved to Texas, where he held various jobs, including that of a ranch hand. Two years later, he moved to Austin, and in 1887, he married a local girl, Athol Estes, who was only seventeen years old. In 1895, Porter was accused of embezzlement for the time he worked as a teller at the First National Bank of Austin. Although he denied the charges, he was arrested and skipped bail before the trial began. He returned to Austin in 1897 to see his wife who was dying of tuberculosis. Porter was re-arrested and found guilty and sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary. While in prison, he had a dozen stories published and adopted the name O. Henry. After his release, he never returned to Texas. In 1902, he moved to New York City and wrote hundreds of short stories while living there. He died in 1910 of cirrhosis of the liver.

The O. Henry Award is one the most important short story prizes in America. For information about this prestigious award visit:

http://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/ohenry/resources/faq.html

At left is a photo of the O. Henry Home and Museum in Austin, Texas which I visited in 2004.

For more information on the O. Henry Museum visit:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/ohenry.htm

To download his short stories free visit:

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu

Eye on Literature

Eye on Literature features critical discussions of poetry and short stories as well as background information on writers including Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, Theodore Roethke, Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Andrew Marvell, John Steinbeck, John Updike, and others. Guests include professors, students, and writers. Future podcasts will include a comparison of the novel and film version of To Kill A Mockingbird and student reactions to Shakepeare's Othello.

More podcasts added each month at:

http://eyeonliterature.blogspot.com/

Eye on Literature is written and produced by Professor Michael Minassian.

You can also access the podcasts at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/eyeonliterature

Armenian Poetry and Politics

To see some of my poems and the work of other Armenian poets from the US and abroad, visit:

http://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com/


In 1915, the Turkish Government systematically massacred over one and a half million Armenians in what is widely recognized as the first genocide of the 20th Century. However, Turkey's official position is to deny and revise the historical evidence. The recent assassination of Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul shows that there are still some in Turkey who are desperate to bury the truth. In 2006, the French government passed a law making it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. Yet in this country, George Bush has nominated a genocide denier to the post of Ambassador to Turkey. Please write the White House and your other elected officials to protest this disgraceful appointment.

To urge your elected representatives to support a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide visit:

http://www.anca.org/

The Armenian National Committee of America also supports efforts to halt the continuing genocide in Darfur.

For more information and postings about the Armenian Genocide, see my other blog at:

http://rememberarmeniangenocide.blogspot.com/