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Shmavon
Azatyan Call me Shai. I
was born in 1976 in Yerevan, Armenia, in a family of architects. I began to
write when I was about eight. My mother had noticed in me a bend towards
composition, and she began to ask me to compose short writings on people
around us—relatives, friends and colleagues. When I became fourteen, I had a
desire to compose poems for the girl I was in love with. This initial lame
practice in writing later turned into a more conscious creative writing
“practicum,” going through stages of writing detective stories in Russian,
then short sudden fiction bordering on both poetry and short fiction in
Armenian, and then writing lyrics in English to set to my songs. |
Shmavon Thus Far
EDUCATION
2002-present UL Lafayette, Master’s program
1993-1998 Yerevan State University, Diploma in
English Philology and Literature
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2004 Teaching Assistant, UL Lafayette,
English 223 (Introduction to Creative Writing)
2003 Teaching Assistant, UL Lafayette,
Freshman Composition
PUBLICATIONS
2002 “Takeover,” Creative
non-fiction in newspaper Day (in Armenian).
2002 “Only Political
Consciousness, but no Civil Responsibility,” in Day (in Armenian).
2000 “Lovebefallen,” poem in
Famous Poets Society’s annual anthology.
Shmavon on UL Lafayette
Studying
at the English department at UL Lafayette has been greatly supportive for my
writing.
Ernest
Gaines’ workshop reinforced my knowledge on how to write fiction. It was very
useful in giving definite form to my plot and narrative construction, which
were lame before. The literature classes and seminars have been equally
important in providing me with specific interpretive techniques. My previous
broad but generalist knowledge needed deepening at some places that I was most
interested in, and the classes I’ve been taking here have given that focus.
Studying particular areas in English literature helped me to strengthen my
skills in writing. I believe I have considerably improved my poetry writing
after taking Jerry McGuire’s seminar in Primary Poetics.
There’s
a humid, but cheerful feeling about the Creative Writing concentration that
might be related to the climatic features of Louisiana. In summer, it gets
unbearable to breathe, and the inspiration for writing disappears. But there’s
a queer border that occurs somewhere in October (depending on the yearly
cycle’s global suggestion, indeed) that brings fair skies, velvet nightfalls
and golden sunrises. This season, the writing season, is enormously conducive
to composing, particularly poems on autumn instincts and mysteries. Though this
creative period breaks up in December for two months vacation, it resumes in
magnificent floral- and leaf-pretty skirts and shirts in March, then carries
over into May with wild joys and drinking parties on the way. And it is
impossible to hold back from writing. . . . A great place, Louisiana.
Go to UL Lafayette
Creative Writing Anthology