Many thanks to Casey Dorman for posting this insightful review of my new poetry collection Time is Not a River on his website Lost Coast Review:

Very excited that my full-length collection of poems Time is not a River 

published by Transcendent Zero Press is now available on Amazon. Click here:

Please consider purchasing a copy and posting a review on Amazon or other social media.

Thanks for looking!

Very pleased to announce that my photography chapbook “Around the Bend” was published by Praxis Online Magazine:

Unfortunately, Around the Bend is no longer available. Praxis Magazine Online is defunct.

If you like what you see, please "like" the posting here or on other social media.  

Thanks for looking!

5 images chosen for Fort Worth Community Arts Center "35mm Slide Show"

Very excited to have five of my images chosen for inclusion in the FORT WORTH COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER “35mm Slide Show” December 1, 2017-January 5, 2018.

Poem published in South Florida Poetry Review

Thanks to the Editors at the South Florida Poetry Journal for publishing my poem “The Drowning” in the November 2017 issue. You can see the poem here The Drowning:

2 Poems published in Diverse Voices Quarterly, an online publication

Two of my poems were recently published in Diverse Voices Quarterly, an online publication.
They can be accessed here:

Poems

The first poem which appears on page 10 is entitled "The Fortune Teller" and is inspired (loosely) on an experience I had in Seoul, South Korea over twenty years ago.

The second poem, on page 58, is entitled "Eyes on Fire" and is a tribute to victims of the Armenian Genocide, including those in my own family.

Thanks for looking.

POEM PUBLISHED BY COAL HILL REVIEW

One of my poems was published by the Coal Hill Review, an online magazine. The poem appeared in the Fall 2011 issue and is entitled "Grief was a Stone." It is loosely based on my grandfather who was a survivor of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Over a million and a half Armenians were killed in official Turkish government action, a fact still denied by Turkey.

The poem can be accessed by clicking on the link:

Coal Hill Review

Cover Photo for Convergence, an online magazine

One of my photos was published by an online magazine called Convergence as their "Cover Photo."

Convergence has been publishing short fiction, poetry, photography, and art work since 2003 in an online ad-free format.

Click here to see the cover photo of Convergence (Fall 2009)

Five Photographs featured in Emprise Review

In 2009, five of my photographs were featured in Vol 8 (Winter 2009) of Emprise Review.

Emprise Review is an online literary journal which publishes short-fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and photography.

These photos were taken in Connecticut and New Jersey with a 35 mm Nikon camera and a medium format twin-reflex Minolta.

Unfortunately, their website is no longer working. Stay tuned for future updates.

Short Story Published

One of my short stories entitled: "YOU ARE FINDING LOVE" has been published by Defenestration, an online journal dedicated to humor. To access the story:

Click on this link

I wrote this story a few years ago after reading an article in the Miami Herald about overseas marriage brokers.

Poem - "The Arboriculturist"

One of my poems entitled "The Arboriculturist" was published by Perigee: Publication for the Arts, an online literary journal in the Aug./Sept./Oct 2007 issue (No. 17).

To take a look at the magazine Perigree, click on:

http://www.perigee-art.com/


Here is the poem as it appeared in Perigree:

THE ARBORICULTURIST

by Michael Minassian

Wanting shade
I made a tree;

first, an old step
ladder, wooden
with one missing slat.

For leaves, I took
pages of books
I found discarded
next to the washing machine.

Pictures from magazines
stood for blossoms;
a torn photograph
I forgot to burn
hung like ripened fruit.

But what shall I use
for roots to anchor
my surrogate sapling
this artifice of bark,
sap, and heartwood?

To view the video of my interview with Professor Gary Kay, play the You Tube video below (An Eye On Literature Production). For more video of additional poems, visit http://eyeonliterature.blogspot.com/

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/

Jack Kerouac House, Orlando, FL

In December of 2006, I visited the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida. (That's me relaxing on the front porch). The house is located in the College Park section of Orlando. Kerouac did not actually own the house, but he rented rooms in the back of the house and lived there with his mother during part of 1957 and 1958. I was lucky enough to see the inside of the house while I was there and have posted several photographs (all photos by Sue Minassian) of the interior and exterior. The Kerouac Project now owns the house and sponsors a writers in residence program. Check out their web site at: http://www.kerouacproject.org/