17 Facts About Peter Balakian

Peter Balakian was born on June 13,1951 and is an Armenian-American poet, prose writer, and scholar.

Peter Balakian, son of physician and sports medicine inventor Gerard Balakian and Arax Aroosian Balakian was born in Teaneck New Jersey and grew up there and in Tenafly, New Jersey.

Peter Balakian attended Tenafly public schools, graduated from Englewood School For Boys.

At Bucknell, Balakian studied with the poet and novelist Jack Wheatcroft.

Peter Balakian taught for two years at the Dwight-Englewood School where he met his lifetime friend, the poet Bruce Smith with whom he founded the poetry journal Graham House Review.

In 1976 Balakian began his doctoral studies in the American Civilization Program at Brown University where he wrote his dissertation on the poet Theodore Roethke under the direction of Hyatt H Waggoner and David Hirsch.

Peter Balakian's dissertation was later published as Theodore Roethke's Far Fields.

Peter Balakian joined the faculty at Colgate University in 1980 where he has taught in the English department since; he was co-founder of the Creative Writing Program and has been the director of the program since 2002.

Peter Balakian was the first director of Colgate's Center for Ethics and World Societies in 1999.

Peter Balakian is able to praise the world though he knows its 'bitter history.

Sybil Steinberg editor at Publishers Weekly on the Charlie Rose Show noted that Peter Balakian's memoir was pushing against the self-obsessed American memoir and creating a new orientation for the genre.

For decades, Peter Balakian has worked to combat the Turkish government's denial and propaganda campaigns which is aimed at suppressing the history of the Armenian Genocide and pressuring the US and other nations not to acknowledge it.

Peter Balakian has argued that the Armenian Genocide became the template for other genocides which were carried out in a modern modality and he has argued that it was an influence on the Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe.

Peter Balakian co-authored a letter about the issue published in the Times.

Peter Balakian was married to Helen Kebabian, director of government, foundation, and corporate relations at Colgate University.

Peter Balakian's daughter, Sophia, is a cultural anthropologist who teaches at George Mason University and is married to the fiction writer Michael Don, author of the story collection Partners and Strangers.

Peter Balakian's son, James, is a senior consultant for Deloitte in the Government and Public Services Division in Washington DC.