Nora Nadjarian (born 1966) is an Armenian–Cypriot poet and short story writer. Writing in English,

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

, and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, Nadjarian's writing has focused on the continued fallout of the 1974 partition of Cyprus. A frequent participant in international competitions, poetry festivals, literary conferences and other projects, her poems and short stories have also appeared in numerous anthologies around the world. The writer has said that her work is inspired by

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

and

Yehuda Amichai Yehuda Amichai ( he, יהודה עמיחי; born Ludwig Pfeuffer 3 May 1924 – 22 September 2000) was an Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew in modern times. Amichai was awarded the 1957 Shlonsky Prize, the ...

Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel to a Jewish family in Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz), in the then Kingdom of Romania (now Chernivtsi, U ...

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

and

Sharon Olds Sharon Olds (born November 12, 1942) is an American poet. Olds won the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

are a few other idols that she has mentioned.

Biography

Nora Nadjarian was born in 1966 in

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

, a city on the southern coast of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

. Born to parents who worked in the production of fabrics, Nadjarian is the second generation to be born in Cyprus after her Armenian refugee grandparents moved to

at the beginning of the 20th century. She first attended an Armenian elementary school, then moved to Foley's Grammar School, a private British school, where she earned her high school degree. Following her graduation from Foley's, Nadjarian attended

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

and earned a degree from the department of

modern language A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such a ...

s and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. Upon graduating from Manchester, Nadjarian returned to

and began teaching in

and then in

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...

, where she is currently residing. She visited her

ancestral homeland An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

in 1983 which inspired her to write poems based on

ethnic identity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

, cultural self-discovery, her Armenian roots and the tragic fate of the nation. She first decided to participate in a competition because of the encouragements of a friend, and after being acknowledged for her poem "Vinegar" (1999–2000) she continued to take part in numerous international competitions.

Critical Review

Nora Nadjarian has received international praise for her work, particularly her work focused on the Cyprus partition of

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...

and loss. She has described her work as "political without being polemical" and has written of an ongoing battle in both the physical sense and mind inside the Cypriot heart that is defined by the division in

between the

Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots or Cypriot Greeks ( el, Ελληνοκύπριοι, Ellinokýprioi, tr, Kıbrıs Rumları) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2011 census, 659,115 r ...

and

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...

sides of the island without taking on a side. She condemns the conflict itself, not the people. Her work is read beyond the Mediterranean borders and can very much be identified with in its search to find what defines one's nationality. Other

review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

s can be found at: * The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/may/01/featuresreviews.guardianreview34 * Cadences William Macfarlane, review of Nora Nadjarian, ''Girl, Wolf, Bones'' (2011), in ''Cadences'' 8 (2012), 110–111.

Works

Poetry Books

* ''The Voice at the Top of the Stairs'' (2001) * ''Cleft in Twain'' (2003) * ''25 Ways to Kiss a Man'' (2004)

Micro Novel

* ''“Republic of Love”'' (2010)

Short Story Books

* ''“Ledra Street”'' (2006) – Translated to

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

by Zhenya Dimova (2011) * ''“Girl, Wolf, Bones”'' (2011) * "Selfie and Other Stories"'' (2017)

Mini Book

* ''The Girl and the Rain'' (2012)

Other Works (Short Stories and Poems)

Many of her poems can be read online throug
her blog
and some can even be listened to o
Lyrikline

Awards

Nora Nadjarian was among the winners in the Scottish International Open Poetry Competition in 2000 with her poem "Vinegar", and in 2003 with "Conception". Furthermore, she was awarded prizes at the Manifold Art and Artists Poetry Competition in 2003, at the Féile Filíochta International Poetry Competition in 2005 in Ireland and at the Poetry on the Lake competition also in 2005. Her short story “Ledra Street” was a runner-up in the

Commonwealth Short Story Competition Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

(2001). The poems "The Butcher" and "The Tenderness of Miniature Shampoo Bottles" were

shortlisted A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

in the Plough Arts Centre Poetry Competition (2003) and were displayed at the Centre in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England, in January 2004. "And the Seven Dwarves" has been honoured in the Sixth Annual International Ultra-Short Competition (2008–2009), while "Tell Me Words" has been commended in the Ninth Annual International Ultra-Short Competition (2011–2012); events that are sponsored by The Binnacle at the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

at Machias. Finally, “The Name” won in the unFold 2012 Poetry Garden Show competition.

Interviews

* http://www.theshortreview.com/authors/NoraNadjarian.htm * http://fictiondaily.org/author-interviews/nora-nadjarian/ Author Talk * http://dailyspress.blogspot.com/2009/10/author-talk-michael-k-white-nora.html

Reference List

Bibliography

* Nora Nadjarian, ''Cleft in Twain'' (Nicosia: J. G. Cassoulides & Son Ltd, 2003), Foreword. * "Poetry (Cyprus)", ''Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English'', ed. by Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly, 1994, pp. 1243 – 1244. * William Macfarlane, review of Nora Nadjarian, ''Girl, Wolf, Bones'' (2011), in ''Cadences'' 8 (2012), 110–111. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nadjarian, Nora Living people Cypriot poets Cypriot short story writers 1966 births English-language writers from Cyprus Cypriot women writers Cypriot women poets Cypriot women short story writers 21st-century women writers People from Limassol 21st-century poets 21st-century short story writers